Going full throttle in his blistering attack against the Congress, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi said while addressing a largely attended public meeting christened by state BJP as ‘parivartan maha rally’ at Parade Ground in the city on Tuesday that despite the party enjoying power for years at the Centre and most of the states for years, there were as many as 18,000 villages across the country, bereft of electricity.
“Soon after the NDA came to power in 2014 I convened a meeting with power ministry officials and came to learn the saddening fact.
I asked them to go for electrification promptly and complete things within the next 1000 days. I am happy to say that now 12000 villages have already got the connection and the rest 6000 villages will get the connection within the deadline I set. Uttarakhand is also reaping benefits of the electrification projects as many of the villages here have been powered with electricity and many more would follow suit in no time,” he said.
In his nearly one hour speech, soaked with innuendoes and sarcasm, PM targeted the Congress while contrasting things during the earlier Congress-led regime and the present NDA regime. He cited the Congress convening a party conclave a few days before the general election-2014 where it was announced that if returned to power, they would provide 12 cylinders in place of nine lPG cylinders per annum to the consumers. “Now contrast this with what we are doing. We decided to give five crore lPG connections to the BPl category families in one go. I knew how the poor, particularly the women, used to suffer while collecting fire woods from the forests to cook. They used to cook by burning firewood and subsequently used to inhale smoke equal to 400 cigarettes. Do the mothers have no right to keep themselves healthyIJ I being chowkidar of the country could have hardly tolerated the suffering the mothers were undergoing to feed us. I took the initiative to provide them with the lPG cylinders to ensure their suffering stopped once and for all,” he said.
Modi also spoke of the one rank one pension (OROP) in a show of empathy for the defence personnel who comprise a sizable chunk of the electorate of the hill state. “Despite the defence personnel demanding OROP for the past 40 years, the Congress kept sitting on it. As the 2014 election drew near they suddenly woke up and announced ` 500 crore for OROP when what was required was `10,000 crore. This was a trickery played on those who represent dedication and sacrifice for the cause of the country. After coming to power, we cleared decks for the execution of the long-pending demand. We told them that we would provide them with the due in four installments. So far we have disbursed `6,600 crore and what is remaining will be released shortly. As far as Uttarakhand is concerned there are around 50 army pensioners in every village. They are reaping benefits of the scheme we cleared,” he said.
Seeking the people’s mandate in the upcoming Assembly election of the state, PM said that Uttarakhand needed a double engine to bring the required pace of development. “A double engine along-one in Delhi and another in Dehradun- can pull the state out of the massive hole of stagnation the state presently is in,” he said in a scathing attack on the Harish Rawat government.
He affirmed that he was not meant to cut ribbons or to light ceremonial lamps. “People entrusted me with the enormous responsibility not to while away time in these trashes. I vowed not to leave the corrupt sleep in peace. Demonetisation is a move in the right direction. Piles of notes and gold stashed illegally are now being confiscated daily and things would continue till the system is cleaned up completely. I took the daring step on the strength of the confidence the people reposed in me. I would not budge an inch from the vow I took. The people made me the chowkidar of the nation and I would discharge my responsibility to the best of my ability ,” Modi thundered. He also touched upon his government’s decision to do way with interviews for class III and IV jobs. “Some people used to go for deals with the job seekers to fleece the innocent. We stopped the cruel practice. However, sadly, the state government here is not executing it despite being prodded by the Centre repeatedly,” he said while appealing to the people to bring a BJP government to power for the speedy execution of the order.