Pune: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been running a superfast “development train” on the safe tracks of national interests, Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said today.
Naqvi, who addressed a ‘Vikas Parv’ meeting here, to mark two years of the Modi-led government, said, “We have to work with great speed to bring development process at ground level and to eliminate the system of middlemen and power-brokers.”
“The Modi government has been converting the country’s inclusive and over-all development into a reality. Our development model is aimed at providing light of progress to the last person of the society,” the Minister of State for Minority Affairs said.
He said the world has been attracted towards India and is considering it as a safe and lucrative destination for investment and business.
“Modi has become a brand of development and trust across the world,” Naqvi added.
Prosperity of villages, farmers, poor, weaker sections and enhanced prestige of Indian culture and economy at global level is hallmark of two years of the central government led by Modi, he said.
Due to the economic reforms initiated by the Modi government, India attracted FDI worth USD 55.46 billion in 2015-16, the highest in any financial year, he said, adding it was USD 36.04 billion in 2013-14.
Amid global economic crisis, Indian economy is strong and growing at more than 7.5 per cent rate, he said.
To ensure safety of national interests, the Centre has radically liberalised the FDI regime with the objective of making business process easy and providing major impetus to job creation in the country, the Union minister said.
In two years, the Modi government has brought in major FDI policy reforms in several sectors including Defence, Construction Development, Insurance, Pension, Broadcasting, Single Brand Retail, Manufacturing Sector and Civil Aviation, he added.
The last two years of the Modi government have proved to
be “bad days” for middlemen and power-brokers and “good days” for poor, farmers, weaker sections, Naqvi said.
Ensuring a corruption-free and development oriented system is one of the biggest achievement of the Modi government, he added.
During 10 years of UPA government, corruption of lakhs and crores of rupees was a matter of discussion, he alleged.
The Modi government has kicked out brokers from power corridors of Delhi which has resulted into a system where each and every penny of money sent by the Centre is being spent on the welfare of poor and needy, the BJP leader said.
Direct benefit transfer scheme ‘Pahal’ has been very effective and about Rs 61,822 crore have been directly deposited into bank accounts of about 31 crore people, Naqvi added.
Rs 36,500 crore have been saved due to ‘Pahal’ as duplicity and leakage has been stopped, he said, adding earlier this money used to be looted by middlemen.
Every welfare scheme of the BJP-led government be it ‘Pradhanmantri Jan Dhan Yojna’, ‘Atal Pension Yojna’, social security schemes have ensured social-economic-educational empowerment of villages, poor, farmers, weaker sections, Dalits, minorities, women and youth, Naqvi said.
During the Modi-led regime, roads, railway lines, highways and other infrastructure has been developed with double speed in comparison to that during the UPA government, the minister claimed.