Seeking to nail a “lie” spoken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his speech at Shirdi in Maharashtra, former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on Friday said that under the “Indira Awas Yojana”, the previous UPA Government had constructed 25 lakh houses every year as against Modi’s claim of 25 lakh houses in four years.
Contesting the “false” figures quoted by the Prime Minister during his speech made after handing over keys to a few of the beneficiary families under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Gramin (PMAY-G), Chavan castigated the Prime Minister for “spreading lies” in the temple town of Shirdi about the houses for the poor and needy constructed by the previous UPA Government.
“The people of India are getting habituated to the lies spread by the Prime Minister. But, he has hurt the sentiments of Sai Baba devotees like me by lying at Shirdi..... The Prime Minister has misled the people of the country by making a false claim that the UPA Government built only 25 lakh houses during four years, as against 1.25 crore houses constructed by the NDA Government in that corresponding period of four years,” Chavan said in a statement issued here.
“Under the Indira Awas Yojana, between 2004 and 2013, during UPA Government, 2 crore 24 lakh 37 thousand houses were constructed. Therefore, during the UPA Government’s tenure, almost 25 lakh houses were completed every year. However, the statistics released by the current Government prove that the objectives of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana have not been fulfilled,” Chavan said.
Quoting the statistics made available in the CAG report of 2014, Chavan said that the UPA Government constructed 1 crore 28 lakh 92 thousand houses during 2008-2013.
“The Rajiv Awas Yojana, launched during the UPA Government in 2013, saw the construction of 1.17 lakh houses in one year. Prime Minister Modi has changed the name of this scheme to Sardar Patel National Urban Housing Mission, with the promise of constructing 2 crore houses by 2022. However, till July 10, 2017, a mere 1.33 lakh houses had been constructed,” senior Congress leader said. “Despite being in a holy place like Shirdi, Modi refused to stop misleading the people of the nation. I pray to Sai Baba to give the Prime Minister the wisdom to speak the truth,” Chavan said.