It was a new and pleasant experience for women of poor families of Raigarh and Bastar districts in Chhattisgarh on Tuesday to talk to Prime Minister Narendra Modi through video conferencing, officials informed.
It is noteworthy that the Prime Minister had direct interaction with women of those beneficiary families on Tuesday who have been sanctioned pucca houses under Prime Minister Awas Yojana (PMAY), they informed.
Distance between Jagdalpur (Bastar) district headquarter and New Delhi is 1500 km and distance between Raigarh district headquarter is 1300 km, but video conference made this long distance between Prime Minister and beneficiaries to vanish in a second. Beneficiary women from both rural and urban areas were present in the video conference.
Women from Bastar were happy to interact with Prime Minister through video conference and they gifted a clay statue of lord Ganesh to Prime Minister.
Modi informed that Central Government has set the goal of providing pucca houses to all the homeless poor families under the scheme by year 2022.
The Prime Minister congratulated these women for getting pucca houses under the scheme and wished peace and properity for their families. Today morning at first around 10.03 am, Prime Minister talked to 30 women beneficiaries. These women beneficiaries were present at the video conference room of National Information Science Centre of Collectorate in District Headquarter Jagdalpur. The conversation started with Phoolmati Baghel of village Badedharaur (lohandiguda block).
He motivated the women to adopt a healthy lifestyle and advised them to stay away from addictions of tobacco, 'gudaku' and other harmful intoxicants. live telecast of this video conference was done at Sirhasar Chowk, Shaheed Park, Kotwali and Municipal Corporation Office of Jagdalpur. Women from village Titirgaon, Ghatakwali, Darbha, Narayanpal, Ulnar, Nagar Panchayat Bastar and Municipal Corporation area Jagdalpur were also present at the conference.
In the same sequence, 30 women listened to the Prime Minister at video-conferencing room of NIC at Collectorate in Raigarh district headquarters. These women thanked Prime Minister for sanctioning pucca houses under Prime Minister Housing Scheme. Resident of village Karrakot of Baramkela block, Bhuvaneshwari informed Modi that this scheme has made my family's dream of having our own pucca house come true.
Naanmoti of village Darridih of Dharamjaigarh block, belonging to backward tribe-Birhor, said that earlier her family had to live in kuchcha house, and bear the leaking roof during rainy season.
But now we have a pucca house and our problems are solved. likewise, women from other villages of the district also shared their experiences.
Expressing delight at interacting with Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana beneficiaries, Prime Minister said that such interactions help in understanding various aspects of the scheme, including areas that needs to be improved.
The Prime Minister further added that Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana is not just about brick and mortar but about providing better quality of life and dreams coming true.
Addressing the beneficiaries, the Prime Minister said that the last 4 years, Government has taken a mission mode approach towards providing housing for all. Government is working towards ensuring that every Indian has a home by 2022, when India will celebrate its 75 years of independence.
Under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, Government plans to build around three crore houses in rural areas and one crore houses in urban areas.