Poverty to be fully eradicated from India in next 10-15 years: Rajnath

Bhawanipatna (Odisha), May 8 (PTI) Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday claimed that poverty would be completely eradicated from India in the next 10-15 years and this is ‘Modi Ki guarantee’.

Singh said this while addressing the BJP’s ‘Vijay Sankalp’ rally here in the district headquarters town of Kalahandi.

“Though Congress leaders beginning from Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru to Indira Gandhi and Manmohan Singh all have promised to end poverty, all of them have failed. However, our Prime Minister Narendra Modi has started the process to end poverty,” he said.

Noting that about 25 crore people have been lifted from below the poverty line during the nine years rule of Modi, the Defence minister said that this was not the claim made by the BJP, but the report of Niti Aayog. No previous government had ever done so as Modi did in the last nine years, he claimed.

Singh said: “There will be no family in India which will not have a pucca house, pipe drinking water and LPG gas connection in the next 5 years.”

Recalling the Kalahandi situation, the BJP leader said that people from NGOs were coming to Kalahandi and writing articles on ‘poverty tourism’, as the place was known for hunger, starvation death and poverty. However, things have undergone a massive change during the nine-year rule of the Modi government at the Centre, he said.

While lauding the vocabulary skill of BJP’s Kalahandi Lok Sabha candidate Malavika Devi, Singh appealed to the people of Kalahandi to vote for the lotus symbol for proper highlighting of the local issues at the national level.

Quoting former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on the expenditure of public money, Singh said: “Only 15 paise was reaching the beneficiary in the ground level if the Centre sent Rs 1 for the poor people. However, Modi’s Jandhan account and direct bank transfer procedure ended the corruption and the people are getting the money sent by the Centre.”

Appealing the people to install a BJP government in Odisha, Singh said that the BJP government will implement the Ayushman Bharat health scheme as soon as a saffron government is formed in Odisha. He said cutting across caste, creed and religion, all the people at the age of 70 years or above would be covered under the Ayushman Bharat scheme.

“Bring BJP government in Odisha, the state will implement Ayushman Bharat immediately,” he said.

The Defence minister also claimed that during the Modi regime, terrorism has almost come to an end due to timely and strong action against terrorists. He, however, said that there is a few sporadic cases of terrorism and it will completely vanish from Indian soil under the leadership of Modi.

Claiming that the BJP does what it says, Singh said the Modi government has abolished Article 370, ended the triple talaq practice and installed Sri Ram Lala’s statue at Ayodhya as promised earlier.

He appealed to people to vote for BJP candidates contesting in Lok Sabha and Odisha Assembly polls.

Lok Sabha and Assembly elelctions would be held simultaneously in Odisha.