Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment and Forests Prakash Javadekar on Thursday said the Union government has plans to construct four crore houses for the rural poor and another two crore for their urban counterparts, works for which would begin this year itself.
Speaking to presspersons here, Mr. Javadekar said it was the poor who gave the Bharatiya Janata Party a thumping majority in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and the NDA government has been making every effort to improve their living conditions.
After the spectacular success of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana wherein more than 15 crore new bank accounts were opened, the government introduced three social security schemes this May. Within 20 days, the three schemes have received more than 8 crore subscription, he said.
Mr. Javadekar said the next priority of the government was providing employment. While the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act had been strengthened and provided an additional Rs. 40,000 crore grants, the government was keen on providing permanent jobs.
For this, it would be organising several skill development programmes across the country. Meanwhile, his Ministry is considering offering minimum support price to tribal people for minor forest produces they collect in their habitations. This is being done for the first time, Mr. Javadekar said.
Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment and Forests Prakash Javadekar on Thursday said that the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh owes an explanation to the nation after revelations by former TRAI Chairman Pradip Baijal that he [Mr. Singh] had threatened the latter in the matter of 2G spectrum allocation.
Mr. Javadekar told presspersons here that the disclosures were shocking. The present NDA government, he said, had netted Rs. 1.09 lakh crore from auctioning of the telecom spectrum and over Rs. 3 lakh crore from auctioning just about one fifth of the available coal blocks. “This went into the government kitty,” he said.
