Criticising former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for her much talked about move to nationalise banks in 1969, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Gandhi nationalised the banks in names of poor people but after so many years they remained aloof from banks.
Addressing a rally at Somnath on Wednesday after attending a meeting of Somnath temple trust, Modi said his Government forced banks to open accounts of poor people under Jan-Dhan scheme and issued 21 crore RPAY Cards.
In order to bridge the gap between rich and poor, the Central Government is doing well-designed result oriented efforts, said PM Modi announcing that under Sagar Mala project as many as 40 ports would be developed in Gujarat at an estimated cost of `45,000 crore.
Meanwhile, on the International Woman’s Day, the Prime Minister also addressed female Sarpachs conference — “Swachchh Shakti 2017” at Gujarat’s capital Gandhinagar. He struck the chord of nearly 6,000 woman Sarpanchs arrived from across the country and assembled at Mahatma Mandir Convention cum Exhibition Centre saying that women can change the fate of villages as female Sarpanchs are more dedicated to their work compared to their male counter parts.
Majority of male Sarpanchs remained busy in political affairs to fulfil their ambition to make it in assemblies and parliament, while generally females have lesser ambitions, he said, adding that female Sarpanchs can work on the issue of education, female
foeticide, gender equality to name a few.
Suggesting Sarpanchs to meet children regularly, Modi said that children generally know the name of Prime Minister and Chief Minister but they sometimes didn’t know the Sarpanch’s name. He said that the era of husbands of female sarpanches dominating polity in the rural India was on decline as women were getting educated and empowered.
The Prime Minister also claimed that there wasn’t any dearth of money for the development of villages as Central government was directly sending `2 lakh crore to rural parts of the country annually. He suggested creating a source of income for villages by transforming village garbage into fertilizer. Modi also urged the female Sarpanchs to celebrate foundation day of their villages.
“In case there is no trace of foundation day of village, by draw one date should be selected as foundation day and invite all those who left the village years ago and achieve something in their lives. Such practice would help a village to grow and inhabitants too would inspire to make the village better than earlier,” he added.
Meanwhile, OBC leader Alpesh Thakore was detained to prevent him from carrying out his threat of disrupting PM’s visit to Gandhinagar. His supporters tried to create traffic jam in protest and burnt tyres on the road. The police also turned Gandhinagar office of Congress party in to a fortress and not let Congress workers leave the premises till PM’s function end.