Wednesday, 17 APRIL 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Union Home minister Amit Shah came down heavily on the Congress while comparing the work done during 10 years under the UPA government and the work done during 10 years under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Addressing a public gathering in Kotdwar in support of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Garhwal Lok Sabha candidate Anil Baluni on Tuesday, Shah said that if the BJP lets in all the Congress leaders wanting to join it, probably only the party’s office will be left.
Targetting the opposition he told the people to ask the Congress why it doesn’t give an account of the works it had done. “I am a Baniya, I have an account of the works. During the 10 years under Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, the Congress at the Centre gave a total of Rs 53,000 crore to Uttarakhand. During the 10 years under PM Modi, Uttarakhand received Rs 1,66,000 crore in grants plus Rs 82,000 crore for infrastructural development. To stop the problem of migration in Uttarakhand, tourism needs to be developed. The Modi government gave Rs 12,000 crore 900 kilometre long Char Dham all-weather road project, the Rs 8,000 crore Delhi-Dehradun economic corridor and recently about 30 national highway projects were unveiled on which Rs 5,000 crore will be spent,” he said.
Referring to Ramnavmi to be celebrated on Wednesday Shah said, “This will be the first time in 500 years when Lord Ram’s birthday will be celebrated in a grand temple and not in a tent. The Congress stalled the resolution of this case for decades while the Modi government facilitated its solution and construction of the temple in five years.” He recalled that since the Jan Sangh days, the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code in the nation has been a major agenda of the BJP, appreciating chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami for implementing the UCC first in Uttarakhand. Stating that every fourth armyman hails from Uttarakhand, Shah said that Indira Gandhi had promised one rank one pension to the servicemen but the Congress failed to implement it in 40 years. The Modi government fulfilled this promise and deposited Rs 70,000 crore in the accounts of army families. Exhorting the public to vote for the BJP candidate he said that every vote to the BJP candidate is a vote for Modi. Re-electing PM Modi to a third term will ensure a Viksit Bharat, enable India to become the world’s third largest economy and empower three crore women to become Lakhpati Didis. Shah said, “The Congress ignored the border villages while we rolled out the Vibrant Village programme to develop these villages. It is Modi’s guarantee that the villages along the border with China will have more population in five years than they had in 1980. We abrogated Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir. The Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge asks what do the people in Rajasthan and Uttarakhand have to do with Kashmir. I tell him that brave Garhwali soldiers in large numbers have shed their blood serving the nation in Kashmir. Under the Congress, the terrorists used to explode bombs in J&K and then run back to Pakistan. They carried out the Uri and Pulwama attacks thinking that nothing would be done but within 10 days, surgical and air strikes were carried out and the terrorists were eliminated.”
Referring to various developments achieved by the Modi government, he said that more than 80 crore card holders are being provided free ration, more than 12 crore toilets have been built, four crore homes have been built for the poor and three crore more will be built in Modi’s third term. Speaking about the free cooking gas connections provided under the Ujjwala Yojana, he said that piped cooking gas will be provided in the country within five years. Exhorting the people to elect Baluni by a thumping margin, Shah said that he himself will take care of Uttarakhand if Baluni is elected.
