'16,500 villages covered by 7 flagship welfare schemes'

New Delhi: BJP chief Amit Shah on Tuesday claimed that 16,500 villages were covered by seven flagship welfare schemes, including providing LPG cylinders to poor, during a recent campaign and asserted that the Modi government would seek coverage of all villages in the country by the next Lok Sabha polls.

The Modi government would work to ensure that all the villages in the country are totally covered under the flagship schemes before it approaches people to seek fresh mandate in 2019, Shah

said addressing a press conference.

Referring to the Gram Swaraj Abhiyan, which was held between April 14 to May 5, he said for the first time the poor in the villages saw the government reaching their doorstep.

Now we would ensure power connection, LPG connection and opening of new bank accounts and full coverage of all other welfare schemes in 45,000 villages of the 115 most-backward districts in the country by August 15, 2018, he told reporters.