25cr people brought out of poverty in 9 yrs: PM Modi

Solapur (Maharashtra): At least 25 crore people have been lifted out of poverty in India in the last nine years as a result of the “tapasya” and true dedication of the government towards the poor, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said here on Friday.

He said that earlier, poverty alleviation programmes in the country lacked results owing to the absence of proper intent and the pilferage by the middle-men.

“This is the outcome of the clean intentions and policies favouring the empowerment of the poor plus the commitment to the nation,” the PM said, adding that ‘Modi ki Guarantee’ is about the commitment to take the benefit of the government schemes directly to the beneficiaries.

The PM said in the last 10 years, more than Rs 30 lakh-crore have been transferred directly to the accounts of farmers, women, youth and poor, while 10 crore fake beneficiaries were weeded out by using the ‘JAM’ mode — Jan Dhan-Aadhar-Mobile.

PM Modi said this while speaking at an event to hand over 15,000 houses at RAY Nagar Housing Society in Solapur under the Prime Minister Awas Yojana-Urban, while another 15,000 shall come up in the 350 acres housing complex.

This was a dream come true for the 15,000 family-beneficiaries like handloom and powerloom workers, construction labourers, street vendors, ‘beedi’ makers, drivers, rickshaw-pullers, and others in the unorganised sectors, and PM Modi had laid the foundation stone for the complex in 2019.

The project was conceived by the former Communist Party of India-Marxist state secretary and 3-time MLA Narsayya Adam, 79, who struggled for long to ensure a respectable dwelling for the people eking out a living in the unorganised sectors.

Sharing the dais with PM Modi and other dignitaries, Adam termed it as “a dream come true” for all the people in the informal sector, and along with the homes all other amenities like electricity and water would also be provided.

The RAY Nagar is sprawled across 350-acres of land and the project of 30,000 homes would also have seven water tanks, a sewage treatment plant, solid waste management facility, a government school and a hospital, good internal roads and other civic amenities.

Though the erstwhile Congress-Nationalist Congress Party regime decided to build the colony, it hung and only after 2014, when Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena’s CM Devendra Fadnavis took office, the project was fast-tracked and he even got it included under the PMAY.

The project suffered another major delay during the Covid-19 pandemic years, plus the change of government in 2019, but finally the scheme was completed and launched by the PM Modi on Friday.

The Prime Minister also went around a couple of sample homes in the complex and expressed his satisfaction at the work, which will benefit thousands of beedi makers as Solapur is one of the beedi manufacturing hubs in the country.

On the occasion, the PM also distributed the first and second instalments of the PM-SVANIDHI scheme to 10,000 people, laid the foundation stone for 8 AMRUT Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) projects.

PM Modi was seen becoming emotional at one point as he distributed the new home keys to the beneficiaries with the event attended by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy CMs Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, and other elected leaders, and a large number of families who will move to their new dwellings.