Four biggest ‘castes’ are poor, youth, women & farmers: PM

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted, on Thursday, in his address to beneficiaries of different schemes as part of the government’s ‘Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra’ for saturation coverage of welfare schemes, he said four biggest “castes” for him are the poor, youth, women, farmers, and their rise will make India developed.

PM Modi said that his work in the last 10 years has led to people having immense confidence in his government as he faulted past dispensations for acting like “mai baap” of citizens, with vote bank considerations guiding their development initiatives.

The yatra, under which government ‘raths’ (chariots) are travelling to all corners, has generated huge enthusiasm among people with some describing the vehicles as “Modi ki guarantee wali gaadi” (vehicles carrying Modi’s guarantees), the Prime Minister said.

More than half the population had lost faith in government as they had to depend on middlemen and running around offices to seek any benefit while his dispensation is reaching out to the masses to enrol them for various welfare measures, he said. Earlier governments were driven by political calculations and vote bank considerations, he said.

He said that in just 15 days of the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra, people are walking along and joining it. Until now, the vehicle of ‘Modi ki guarantee’ has reached over 12,000 panchayats and more than 30 lakh people have benefited from it, the Prime Minister said.

Underscoring his commitment, he said he went to a remote tribal region in Khunti to launch the yatra instead of doing it at a place like Vigyan Bhawan, a venue associated with official programmes.

The Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra is being undertaken across the country with an aim to attain saturation of flagship schemes of the government by ensuring that the benefits of these schemes reach all targeted beneficiaries in a time bound manner, according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s office (PMO).

During the event, Modi also launched an initiative to increase the number of Jan Aushadhi Kendras, which sell medicines at subsidised rates, from 10,000 to 25,000 after inaugurating the landmark 10,000th Kendra at AIIMS, Deoghar.

He also launched the ‘Drone Didi Yojana’. The scheme aims to provide drones to 15,000 select women Self Help Groups during the period 2024-25 to 2025-2026 for providing rental services to farmers for agriculture purposes.

Speaking to newly inducted employees in different government departments at the Centre and in some states after distributing nearly 51,000 appointment letters as part of ‘Rozgar Mela’, he asked them to ensure that welfare initiatives reach the most deprived people wherever they are and said this will lead to the realisation of goal of making India a developed country by 2047. He said his government’s policies and decisions have taken the economy to a new height.

Noting that the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojna, which provides free grains to over 80 crore people, has been extended for another five years, he asserted that “Modi’s guarantee means the guarantee of fulfilling all guarantees”.