NEW DELHI, Mar 17 : Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday slammed Congress and opposition-led state governments for ignoring the plight of the needy and marginalised and said he “spits on such politics” that ruins poor people’s lives.
Replying to a discussion on the working of the Rural Development Ministry in the Rajya Sabha, he said opposition states do not implement many pro-poor welfare schemes, as they have “Prime Minister’s” name in them.
For example, the Tamil Nadu government has not approved 1.93 lakh houses. In Karnataka also, out of 7 lakh houses, 3.8 lakh have not been approved, he said.
“The problem is in the name. What good is such politics? I spit on such politics that destroy and ruin the lives of the poor,” Chouhan said.
Chouhan, while citing various Modi government-run schemes for the benefits of the poor, also engaged in witty repartee with Congress MP Jairam Ramesh.
“Why do you get angry, Ramesh Ji?” Chouhan quipped when the Congress leader asked whether the schemes he pointed out in his reply were UPA-era.
“I have great respect for Jairam Ramesh ji. I have never seen a sincere and serious MP who sits here for the entire duration of a Parliament session. I really respect him a lot but anger does not suit his face,” he said, amid laughter and thumping of benches by ruling party members.
Chouhan said funds did not reach the poor when the Congress government was in power.
“At that time, a former Prime Minister was very disappointed. He had said, What can we do? We send Rs 1 and only 15 paise reaches the poor. He was helpless. But, we have a strong Prime Minister who sends one rupee and the entire amount goes into the account of a poor person. This is the change we have brought,” Chouhan said.
The Rural Development Minister targeted Congress for being insensitive towards the poor and cited the NDA’s Ujjwala scheme, aimed at providing LPG connections to poor and deprived households who were otherwise using traditional cooking fuels such as firewood and coal.
Chouhan also offered an ‘unsolicited’ piece of advice to the Congress party: not to look for opportunities in adversity.
“When that incident happened, in which innocent citizens were killed in Jammu and Kashmir (referring to the Pahalgam terror attack), they felt no pain at the time… During the recent Middle East crises, we have also seen it… They shouldn’t try to find opportunity in adversity. This won’t benefit the Congress party,” he said.
Chouhan said, whenever Modi was insulted, the public avenged it.
“They once called him ‘merchant of death’ before the Gujarat elections… The situation has become such that Congress is permanently in a state of coma,” he said.
Chouhan said he defended former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during one of his trips to the US. He also charged the Congress leaders with insulting Modi on their trips abroad.
“Whenever you go abroad, you insult not just the Prime Minister (Modi) but the entire nation. With this mentality, Congress can never move forward,” he said.
The Rural Development Minister said that under Modi’s leadership, a glorious, prosperous, self-reliant, and developed India is being built, and no one can stop it.
“This Bharat will become a developed Bharat,” he said, and asked the opposition parties to engage in constructive politics and take the country to the pinnacle of glory.
In his reply, Chouhan said the Modi government took a transformative decision to build toilets in eligible rural and urban households. Today, 10 crore toilets have been built, he added.
Chouhan said there was no electricity in nearly 18,000 villages during the Congress government’s regime, plunging vast regions into darkness.
“But today, through the Saubhagya Yojana, Modi achieved the feat of providing electricity to all households,” he said.
Chouhan said that the government has modified the eligibility criteria to cover more beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, which aims to provide housing to all eligible beneficiaries in urban areas.
Earlier, only those with an income of up to Rs 10,000 were eligible; anyone earning above that threshold was excluded. “It has now been decided that even if income exceeds Rs 15,000, you will be given a house,” he said.
Chouhan said those with two-wheelers, a fisherman with a motorboat, and farmers with 2.5 acres of irrigated land will also be eligible for the PM housing scheme. (PTI)
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