Govt schemes empower poor, make them confident, says PM Modi

Varanasi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday mocked the Congress’ slogan of ‘garibi hatao’ (remove poverty) and said the poor feel empowered and confident when they actually get a pucca house and gas cylinders for their homes.

He also launched the second edition of the Kashi Tamil Sangamam at the Namo Ghar and said it strengthens the sentiment of ‘Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat’. He flagged off the Kashi Tamil Sangamam Express between Varanasi and Kanyakumari.

Modi arrived in Varanasi, his parliamentary constituency, earlier in the day on a two-day visit to launch 37 projects worth over Rs 19,000 crore.

On its way to Cutting Memorial School in the Nadesar area, where the prime minister interacted with schoolchildren and government scheme beneficiaries, his cavalcade gave way to an ambulance.

He addressed the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra at the school and emphasised the need to achieve hundred percent coverage of government schemes.

“The Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra (VBSY) is in a way my ‘kasauti’ (test) also,’ Modi said. “It is my examination... whether whatever I had said and whatever I am doing, I want to hear from you and from the entire country if it has happened in the right proportion.”

He said the beneficiaries of welfare schemes need not be running around government offices rather “the government must reach out to the beneficiaries.”

He said four crore families have been handed pucca homes under PMAY.

“Giving the slogan of ‘garibi hatao’ is one thing. But the poor now says that the day he got a gas cylinder stove in his house the difference between rich and poor ended. He says his confidence went up, when he started living in a pucca house. His children could stand with their friends in schools and colleges.”

“The children felt humble living in a jhopadi (thatched houses)... there was no confidence. But on getting pucca houses, their life filled with self-confidence,” Modi said.

He said that before Independence, people worked towards achieving freedom with great zeal and a similar approach is required to

fulfil the resolve of a developed India. “Every Indian needs this mindset and resolve today.”