Previous govt was not serious about poverty alleviation: PM

SHIRDI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday accused the previous Congress-led government of not being serious about poverty alleviation and working only to promote the “name of a particular family”.

Addressing an event at the famous temple town of Shirdi in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district after offering prayers at the Saibaba temple, Modi said there was a need to defeat divisive forces for all inclusive development.

He sought to highlight the difference between his and the previous governments, saying the current dispensation was working “faster” for providing shelter to the poor.

“The previous (UPA) government built only 25 lakh houses for the poor in the last four years of its rule, while the present NDA government has created 1.25 crore houses in its four-year tenure,” Modi said.

He reiterated his government’s aim to ensure that all the homeless get shelter by 2022, when India celebrates 75 years of Independence. Modi interacted with some beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) from different parts of Maharashtra through video-conferencing and also symbolically handed over keys of houses to some.

“In the last four years, the government has made serious efforts to provide proper Punjab CM Captain Amrinder Singh meets Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, Thursday

houses to the poor living in shanties,” Modi said.

“Efforts were made in the past too. But unfortunately, their sole objective was to promote the name of a particular family, instead of empowering the poor by providing shelter to them. Their aim was to create a vote-bank,” he alleged, without naming anyone.

Modi said the previous government

would take 18 months to build a house, while the NDA government was doing it in less than 12 months.

“Had the same (UPA) government been in power now, it would have taken 20 years to build these (1.25 crore) houses and you would have to wait 20 years to get the houses,” he said attacking the previous Manmohan Singh-led government. PTI

Besides reducing the time taken for constructing a house, the government has also increased its size as well as the monetary assistance from Rs 70,000 to Rs 1.20 lakh (for each house), the prime minister said.

“The beneficiaries are chosen in a transparent manner and the subsidy is directly transferred to the bank account of the beneficiaries,” he said.