Union Minister for Human Resource Development Smriti Irani on Saturday utilised a BJP/NDA-sponsored campaign platform to criticise the former United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for failing Kerala on a number of counts, including the establishment of an Indian Institute of Technology.
Addressing a function here that launched the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government’s campaign to highlight its achievements in providing financial security to the people, Ms. Irani said the NDA government had delivered several of its promises that the Congress had failed to implement in the 60 years of its rule. “The Congress had promised an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) for the State, but it was never fulfilled. The NDA government however was prompt in implementing its promise for an IIT made in its first budget. Last week, the IIT started functioning in Palakkad,” she said.
Given the Bharatiya Janata Party’s interests in Thiruvananthapuram, Ms. Irani did not spare former Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development and local MP Shashi Tharoor, claiming the BJP had succeeded in doing “what the Congress HRD Minister did not do for the State.”
She said the Prime Minister’s Jan Dhan programme was a big success, because it was the first of its kind that provided insurance cover. There were sceptics who had doubts about the scheme, but a total of Rs.20,700 crore had been mobilised by the banks under this scheme so far, she said. “Ninety-nine per cent of the population in the country had been covered under the programme, which was ‘something the Congress did not do in its 60 years of rule.”
Nationalised banks had opened temporary stalls at the venue of the function to facilitate people to open the popular zero balance accounts under the Jan Dhan Yojana.
