(Eds: Adds quotes) Rewa, Apr 24 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday blamed the previous Congress governments for meting out “step-motherly” treatment to villages in the country after Independence and breaking their trust.
Addressing a public event in Rewa on the occasion of the National Panchayati Raj Day, Modi said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government has changed the situation and pumped in huge grants to panchayats.
“The party which ruled the most after Independence broke the trust of villages…meted out step-motherly treatment to them,” Modi said.
“People, schools, roads, electricity, storage facilities, economy of villages…all these were kept at the bottom of the government’s priorities during the Congress regime,” he said after virtually inaugurating a number of development projects.
The previous governments used to avoid spending money for villages, because a village was not vote bank in itself. “That is why they were ignored,” he said.
“Many political parties were running their ‘shops’ by dividing village folks,” he said.
The BJP has ended this injustice meted out to villages and opened our treasury chest for their development, he added.
He also took a veiled jibe at MP Congress chief Kamal Nath by speaking about lack of development in Chhindwara, adding that the blame lay with the thinking of some political parties.
Nath was the Lok Sabha MP from Chhindwara for the dominant part since 1980, while his son Nakul Nath won the seat in the 2019 general elections, which also ensured the BJP didn’t have a clean sweep in the state’s 29 seats. Kamal Nath is currently MLA from Chhindwara.
“The ruling parties broke the trust of the rural poor by ignoring the basic needs of these areas after Independence,” Modi said.
The prime minister extended wishes to people on the National Panchayati Raj Day and said more than 30 lakh panchayat representatives from across the country were virtually connected to the programme held in Rewa.
This is certainly a very powerful picture of India’s democracy, he said.
Modi said in the 10 years before 2014, around 6,000 panchayat buildings were built with the help of the then central governments.
“But, our government, within eight years, has got more than 30,000 new panchayat buildings constructed,” Modi said.
Since 2014, the country has taken up the cause of empowerment of its panchayats and the results are visible today. Now, India’s panchayats are emerging as the lifeline of development of villages, the PM said.
The governments after Independence destroyed the Panchayati Raj system in the country, the PM said.
The system which existed hundreds and thousands of years ago, the same Panchayati Raj system was not trusted after Independence, he said.
Referring to the digital development of rural areas under the present regime, Modi said in this era of digital revolution, panchayats are also being made smart.
The e-GramSwaraj-GeM (government e-marketplace) integrated portal has been launched on Monday and it will make the process of procurement done through panchayats simple and transparent, he said.
“We have had a lot of confusion regarding the property papers of houses in villages. Due to this, there were various disputes and possibilities of illegal possession. Now, all these things are changing with the ‘PM SVAMITVA Yojana’,” he said.
The scheme is changing the landscape of property rights in the villages and was reducing disputes and litigation, while the use of drones was ensuring people were getting property documents without discrimination, Modi asserted.
The work of ‘property cards’ has been completed in 75,000 villages in the country, the PM said, and praised the MP government for its efforts in this direction.
When villages of the country are powered with (the facility of) banks, then people in rural areas get help in everything from farming to business, the PM said.
“We have opened bank accounts of more than 40 crore people in villages by running the Jan Dhan Yojana. We have increased the reach of banks to villages through the India Post Payments Bank,” Modi said.
He said the previous governments had connected less than 70 gram panchayats with the optical fibre (system).
“It is our government which has taken the optical fibre to more than two lakh panchayats of the country,” he said.
Every panchayat, every institution, every representative, every citizen of the country will have to unite for a developed India. This is possible only when the basic facilities reach 100 per cent beneficiaries expeditiously, without any discrimination, PM Modi said.
He said it is necessary to develop the economic system of India’s villages and there was also need to strengthen the panchayat system to make the country developed.
“With this thinking, our government is continuously working to strengthen the panchayat system of the country,” he said.
The prime minister said that the Finance Commission’s grant before 2014 for panchayats was less than Rs 70,000 crore, which has been increased to more than Rs 2 lakh crore after his government assumed power.
Modi said Mahatma Gandhi used to say the soul of India resides in the villages but the Congress ignored his (Gandhiji) views as well.
Speaking about the houses being built under the PMAY, Modi said there existed a tradition of giving (property) ownership to the male members of the family, but this has been changed as “now lakhs of women have become lakhpatis with the ownership of (PMAY) houses”.
The country cannot progress by giving step-motherly treatment to more than half of the country’s population living in villages, he said, adding the double engine government (BJP dispensations at the Centre and MP) had doubled the people’s happiness today.
The Union government started a scheme to provide tapped water to rural homes, and in a period of just three-four years, more than nine crore rural families of the country have started getting tap water at home, the PM said.
The PM said more than four lakh families performed ‘grih pravesh’ for pucca houses built under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and congratulated the beneficiaries.
The PM said his radio broadcast ‘Mann Ki Baat’ is set to complete the 100th edition due to public support.
Modi said he is also eagerly waiting for the 100th episode (on April 30) and urged people to join him on the occasion.
In his address, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said arrangements will be made by his government at every polling booth, ward and panchayat in the state to air the 100th episode.
Madhya Pradesh Governor Mangubhai Patel and Union Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Giriraj Singh were present on the occasion. PTI ADU MAS VT GK BNM BNM
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