Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said he used the “bitter medicine” of demonetisation to bring back money into the banking system and to give “proper treatment to deep-rooted corruption system” in the country.
“We use poisonous medicine to eradicate termite. Similarly, I used note ban as a ‘tez’ [bitter] medicine to treat corruption in the country. People who used to hide their money under beds, in their houses, offices and factories are now paying tax for every single penny and we are using this money for the right schemes for the common man,” he said at an election rally at Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh, which goes to the polls on November 28 fo the Assembly.
Mr. Modi cautioned the State farmers not to get carried away by the Congress’s loan waiver promise and terms it a sham.
“The Congress made a loan waiver promise to farmers in Karnataka before the Assembly polls, but instead of doing so, it is preparing to send peasants to jail. In 2008, a year ahead of the general election, it promised loan waiver to farmers and it turned out to be an eyewash,” he said.
Plan to double farmers' income
The Prime Minister asserted that the National Democratic Alliance government was aiming to double farmers’ income by 2022.
The CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General of India), in a report, pointed to anomalies in the farmers loan waiver during the Congress regime, he pointed out. The Congress was anti-farmer, he alleged.
The government had so far disbursed loans to 14 crore people, “that too without guarantee”, under the ambitious Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana. “The amount of work we have done in four years, the Congress would be able to do it in 10 years,” he said.
“Remember the time when the Congress was in power in Madhya Pradesh. What was the condition of people? Madhya Pradesh does not deserve a government which never thinks about the State’s welfare.”
During the Congress’s 55-year-rule in the State, 1,500 schools were made, but Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan established 4,000 schools in just 15 years. “Our mantra is to provide education to boys and girls, income for youth, irrigation facility to farmers and medicines to elders,” he said.
‘Housing for all’
On ‘housing for all’, he said, “My dream is to provide ‘pucca’ houses to everyone in the country by 2022. We have so far given keys of such houses to 1.25 crore people“.
Mr. Modi termed the Congress-led UPA regime ‘Madam ki Sarakar’ and ‘remote controlwali sarkar’
“I am working for the 125 crore people of the country. I am living for them and this is troubling Congress. The Congress speaks about farmers, but at least 15 big irrigation projects, which were meant for farmers, were kept hanging for years for no reason,'' he said.
