‘UP wala’ Modi eyes Assembly polls; says govt for poor, development
28 May 2016 4:19 AM IST
Addressing the first of his four public rallies here in UP, where Assembly polls are scheduled for the next year, to mark the second anniversary of his government, Modi reached out to the electorate, calling himself a “UP wala” who cared for the farmers. He said his government had taken up a series of measures to help repay the dues of sugarcane farmers, while other governments were not concerned about them.
Recalling his promise that his government would be dedicated to the poor, Modi said every decision that the Centre had taken in the past two years were aimed at their welfare.
“If you look at my work of two years, you will see that one decision after the other was taken to empower the poor, fight poverty and strengthen the poor against poverty so that they could defeat it. No poor man wants to bequeath poverty to his children. I have always tried to work for the common man,” he said.
Development, he said, was the solution to all problems and all other talk was meant to win elections and cater to vote bank politics. With the NDA dispensation facing criticism over alleged intolerance, Modi said his government’s “conscience was clear” and it wanted to develop all sections of society.
Citing Swachh Bharat initiative, Mudra loan scheme, PM crop insurance scheme, free LPG connections to poor and Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign, he said the programmes were meant to serve everyone, irrespective of caste and religion, while schemes launched earlier were made keeping in mind castes and vote bank. Flagging his government’s “honest” credentials, Modi launched a veiled attack against the erstwhile UPA government and charged it with corruption.
“How much money was looted. Now I am in the government and I am shocked over it as whether people are given the chair to loot public money. I have pledged to stop this. I want to ask have you ever heard any news that the Modi government had pocketed money? Have even our rivals levelled such allegations?” he said.
Retirement age of govt docs to be raised to 65 yrs: PM
Citing shortage of doctors, PM Narendra Modi on Thursday announced raising the age of retirement of government doctors to 65 years and said the Union Cabinet would give its nod to the decision this week. He observed that there was a need for more but it was not possible to fill the gap in two years. The decision would cover all government doctors, whether serving under states or the central dispensation, he said.
“There is a shortage of doctors. In government hospitals, their retirement is 60 years in some states, 62 in others. If adequate number of medical institutes were there, then we would have more doctors and would not feel the shortage. It is difficult to make doctors in two years but poor families cannot be forced to live without doctors. I want to announce this to my countrymen that this week our government’s Cabinet will take a decision and the retirement age of our doctors, whether in states or government of India, would be made 65 years instead of 60 or 62,” he said.
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