Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the 11th instalment of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) scheme in Shimla on Tuesday. Under the scheme, ₹6000 is given in three equal instalments to all land holding farmer families. The Centre said it would distribute ₹21,000 crore among more than 10 crore beneficiary farmer families. Each beneficiary would get ₹2000 each in this instalment.
Addressing the beneficiaries, the Prime Minister thanked the people for giving him the opportunity to serve them. He said the previous government considered corruption as an essential part of the system. He alleged that instead of fighting corruption, the then government succumbed to it and the money meant for needy people did not reach them.
Mr. Modi said the trinity of Jan Dhan-Aadhaar and Mobile ensured that money was reaching the beneficiaries directly in their accounts. “Earlier there was a compulsion to suffer smoke in the kitchen, today there is a facility to get LPG cylinders from the Ujjwala scheme. Earlier there was the shame of open defecation; now the poor have the dignity of toilets. Earlier there was helplessness to raise money for treatment, today every poor has the support of Ayushman Bharat. Earlier there was a fear of triple talaq, now there is the courage to fight for one’s rights,” he claimed.
The Prime Minister maintained that vote bank politics had done a lot of damage to the country. “We are working to build a new India, not a vote bank,” he stressed. “100% empowerment means ending discrimination, eliminating recommendations, and ending appeasement. 100% empowerment means that every poor gets full benefits from government schemes,” he stated.
The Prime Minister noted that the welfare schemes initiated by his government changed the meaning of government for people. “Now the government is working for the people. Be it PM housing schemes, scholarships, or pension schemes, with the help of technology, the scope of corruption has been minimised,” he said and asserted that the Centre was trying to give a permanent solution to the problems that were earlier assumed to be permanent. “The Direct Benefit of Transfer put an end to the injustice of pilferage and leakage by removing nine crore fake names from the benefit rolls,” he observed.
The government started empowering the poor from day one. “We tried to reduce every single worry in his life. I can say with pride that almost every family of the country is benefitting from one or the other scheme,” he added.
