Thiruvananthapuram, March 2 Former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Monday asked his successor Pinarayi Vijayan to take credit only for what he has done, saying the Left government did not build 2.14 lakh homes in the state as it claimed.
"Vijayan on Saturday claimed that his government has constructed 2.14 lakh homes across the state. If his claims were true then roughly around 200 new homes should be there in each of the 1,000 local bodies. This is far from reality and we wish to be told by someone who has the authority, to explain this claim," Chandy said while interacting with the media at the Congress headquarters here.
On Saturday morning, as part of the announcement of completing over two lakh houses under the Life Mission programme, Vijayan handed over the keys of two homes in the capital city to the beneficiaries.
And later in the day at a public meeting, he slammed the Congress party for boycotting the programme.
Giving figures, Chandy came out with the answers provided by the Vijayan government in the Assembly on various occasions and claimed that it was a bluff.
"By their own admission, the government found out that 1,00,618 families were eligible and an agreement to build the houses was made with 79,834 families. Will someone explain how and where 2.14 lakh houses was built, when an agreement was made with just 79,834 families," said Chandy.
Chandy said around 52,000 homes were constructed during his term (2011-16).
"What's even more surprising is that 217 flats given to farm labourers in Idukki district was our project and these flats came up in the (Vijayan) advertisements.
"Even if Vijayan does not want to give us any credit, we really wish to know the exact figures. Vijayan should take credit only for what he has done. This has to be explained," added Chandy.
He also pointed out that during his tenure, 4.37 lakh homes was built under various government schemes and they never spent money on advertisements and grandiose celebrations, like Vijayan did.
"I will thank Vijayan for the current controversy, as we never believed in publicity and now people will know the difference," said Chandy.
( With inputs from IANS )