Friday, 12 APRIL 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that under the weak Congress government foreign powers and terrorists used to target the nation but under the strong Bharatiya Janata Party government, the terrorists are being killed in their homes. Targetting the Congress on various issues and listing the development achieved in Uttarakhand, Modi guaranteed the people that the government will work 24×7 for 2047 to make India a developed nation by then. He said this while addressing a large public gathering to elicit support for the BJP candidates in the Lok Sabha election at Rishikesh on Thursday.
Starting his address by greeting the people in the Garhwali language, Modi said that the strong government at the Centre had abrogated Article 370, banned triple talaq, facilitated reservation for women in the parliament and Vidhan Sabhas, and also provided 10 per cent reservation for the poor from the general category. “The Congress had promised Rs 500 crore under One Rank One Pension (OROP). We implemented it and provided more than Rs one lakh crore in OROP to ex-servicemen, out of which Rs 3,500 crore was provided under OROP to ex-servicemen in Uttarakhand. There was no infrastructure in the border regions under the weak Congress government but now infrastructure, roads and tunnels have been built in such areas,” he said.
Stressing on the importance of tourism, Modi said that Uttarakhand has destinations for adventure tourism, rafting, camping and even those interested in spiritualism. “We are consistently enhancing road, rail and air connectivity in Uttarakhand. The border villages which were considered the last villages under the Congress are now being developed as the nation’s first villages,” the PM said. Referring to the ropeway projects in Yamunotri and Hemkund, he said that on completion, these ropeways will enable pilgrims to reach the shrines in a short time. He also referred to the connectivity and convenience provided by the roads under the 900-kilometre Char Dham project. Speaking about the Char Dham Yatra, the PM said that last year about 20 lakh people had visited Kedarnath while about 55 lakh people had undertaken the Char Dham Yatra. Listing other developments in the State, he said that more than 1,000 startups have been registered in Uttarakhand and out of these about 500 are headed by women. “We have provided Rs 2,600 crore directly into the bank accounts of farmers in Uttarakhand under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi. While Modi talks of eradicating corruption, the Congress talks of saving the corrupt. For the Congress, the paty’s ‘royal family’ in Delhi and their own families are everything but for me, the people and Bharat are my family. The women in Uttarakhand used to spend most of their time toiling for firewood, fodder and water. We provided cheap cooking gas cylinders in all homes and today there is tap water in nine out of 10 homes in the State. For the next five years, free ration will be provided to the public and free treatment will be available in the hospitals,” the PM said.
He exhorted the people to elect the BJP candidates on all five Lok Sabha seats in the State.
