My govt made 4 cr pucca houses for poor, removed 10 cr fake beneficiaries of schemes: PM Modi

PTI, Nov 9, 2023, 2:25 PM IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said every vote of the electorate in Madhya Pradesh has the power of “Trishakti”, to help the BJP form government again in MP, strengthen the PM at the Centre. He asked voters to keep the “corrupt” Congress away from power in the state saying it had created crores of fake beneficiaries of government schemes.

Addressing a rally in Satna ahead of the November 17 assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Modi said his government has made four crore pucca houses for the poor, but he has ”not made even one house for himself.” “Your one vote is going to help the BJP form government in MP again. Your vote will strengthen Modi in Delhi and it will also keep the corrupt Congress a hundred miles away from power in MP. That means one vote, three wonders. It is like Trishakti,” Modi said.

The PM said after his government came to power in the country, it removed from records 10 crore fake beneficiaries created by the Congress who were taking benefits of government schemes.

He said the Congress doesn’t have any roadmap for Madhya Pradesh while on the other side, there is “Modi’s guarantee” to fulfil promises.

Modi accused the previous UPA government of hampering the development of the state.

There was the BJP government in MP and UPA government at the Centre. The UPA government hampered the development of Madhya Pradesh at every step, he said. Then the state’s BJP regime got the power of the double engine, he added.

The Congress had thrown MP’s development into a dark well and the BJP government pulled it out from there, he said. Now, every poor person has been getting his right, while the ”corruption” of Congress had destroyed their (referring to the poor) dream of owning homes, he said.

In 10 years, Modi said, the BJP government has sent Rs 33 lakh crore directly into the bank accounts of the poor and not even a single rupee of this has been diverted.

The prime minister said that fake beneficiaries of various schemes are living examples of how the Congress used to ”loot” the money meant for the poor.

Congress had created as many fake beneficiaries on paper across the country as the population of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh combined, he said.

“During Congress government, nobody knew where the money was going. Lakhs, crores went into 2G, coal, commonwealth, and helicopter scams. Modi stopped all these scams. The middlemen were having fun during the Congress (regime) but Modi locked their shops and started transferring money directly into beneficiaries’ accounts,” he said.

Modi said that there were about 10 lakh fake beneficiaries, who were not even born but the Congress was taking out money in their names from the treasury.

This money went into the pockets of Congress and their supporters and middlemen, he said.

But, due to Congress’ misfortune, people elected a “chowkidar” (security guard) in 2014 and such beneficiaries were thrown out and Rs 2.75 lakh crore of public money was saved, he said.

“Now you think, what would the Congress and its supporters do when Modi stopped them from taking the black money of corruption? Will they abuse (me) or not? The reason behind abusing me is that Modi has closed all their shops,” Modi said.

Referring to the construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, Modi said, “Wherever I go nowadays, there is talk of Lord Ram’s temple being built in Ayodhya. There is a wave of happiness all over the country.” The prime minister also said, “If we have got a new Parliament building constructed, we have also built 30,000 panchayat buildings. I am happy that due to the double-engine government of the BJP, Madhya Pradesh is one of the states where lakhs of houses were built for the poor.” In Satna too, the poor have got 1.32 lakh houses, he added.

Modi said he has taken a resolve to extend the free ration scheme for the poor, started during the COVID-19 crisis, for the next five years after December.

He further said two leaders were involved in “tearing clothes” of each other, an apparent reference to MP Congress chief Kamal Nath and Rajya Sabha member Digvijaya Singh over Nath’s recent “tear clothes” jibe.

Both the leaders are telling their supporters to “tear clothes” of each other, the PM said.

“They are fighting to see whose son will take over the MP Congress after getting defeated on December 3 (vote counting day). They are upsetting Madhya Pradesh in a bid to set their sons,” he said.

Praising a musical group from Satna that played a bhajan before his address, Modi said, “It is the strength and power of tunes of music which is coming out from the barrel of gun (referring to the musical instrument made from the barrel of a gun).” When the world is in the midst of crises, the sounds of bombs and guns are being heard all around, and countries like India are trying to create an impact of their idea in the world today, he said.