Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed on Thursday that after his administration established a cleanliness campaign against corruption in 2014, as many as 11 crore fake names of beneficiaries under various schemes were removed from government databases. He then launched a scathing attack on the opposition Congress over the issue of corruption.
After laying the cornerstone for the Rani Durgavati Memorial and Garden on her 500th birth anniversary, PM Modi spoke to a crowd at Jabalpur, which is located more than 300 km to the east of Bhopal.
The PM said that these 11 crore identities belonged to people who had never been and that they were being used as a ruse to steal money from the public coffers.
“Congress created fake documents in these names in government offices. This number is even bigger than the combined population of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. These 11 crores names were used to loot the rights of the poor and needy who really exist. Modi cleaned this corruption after coming to power in 2014,” Modi averred.
“I will not allow this corruption. I will not let the poor be looted and Congressmen fill their cash chest (Tijori) with such money. We created such a system with Jandhan, Aadhar and Mobile phones that it destroyed the Congress’ corrupt system”, he further added.
He mentioned, “Rani Durgavati’s life teaches us welfare of all the people. I congratulate all the tribal community, Madhya Pradesh and 140 crore people of the country on her 500th birth anniversary.”
He stated, “If any country in the world had a legendary personality like Rani Durgavati it would have glorified her in the entire world like anything. This should have been done in our country also after Independence but our great leaders and warriors were forgotten after Independence.”
He added, “The party which ruled the country for decades after Independence did nothing but to worship the feet of a particular family. They didn’t care about the country except the worship (Charan vandana) of the particular family. It’s not this particular family that alone got the country its freedom nor was development of the country done by this single family alone. It’s my government which gave respect to all and took care of every section of society.”
In reference to the Ujjawala plan and how it assisted women in eliminating kitchen smoke, which was prevalent in the past since meals was cooked with firewood, Modi stated that studies indicated that the smoke from cooking with firewood was comparable to smoking 400 cigarettes in a 24-hour period.
To which he had stated, “We gave free LPG connections to the sisters of poor families. Could it not have been done by the Congress earlier? They didn’t have any concern over the health of mothers.”
“The government took a decision yesterday to reduce the price further by ₹100 in view of upcoming festivals like Durgapuja, Navratra, Dussehra and Deepawali. Now, an LPG cylinder will cost ₹600 for beneficiaries of Ujjawala scheme.”
