Bhubaneswar: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh Thursday urged people to make the country Congress free for a poverty-free India.
Singh also appealed to the voters to dislodge Naveen Patnaik government in Odisha and give chance to BJP for a new Odisha.
Addressing the Vijay Sanklap Samabesh at Bari in Jajpur district, before the fourth and final phase of elections in Odisha, Singh said the Congress has been making poverty an issue but failed to eliminate it from the country. He said poverty can be eliminated from the country if the country was made Congress free and urged people to vote for the BJP both for Lok Sabha and Assembly in the state.
Alleging that the desired development has not taken place during the 20 years of BJD rule, Singh appealed to the people to give BJP one chance to serve the state for five years and promised to make Odisha the number one state in the country in five years.
Claiming that the BJP-led NDA government has been able to take 7.5 crore people above the poverty line, Singh said those still living below it will be elevated in the coming five years.
“The Congress has ruled the country for five decades, but India still fights poverty. The garibi hatao call only remained a slogan as Congress governments failed to take any concrete step to eradicate poverty,” the BJP stalwart said.
Mocking Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s promise to make India poverty-free, Singh said Gandhi’s tall claims are aimed at misleading the people for votes.
He said the states where BJP is in power have made rapid progress.
Singh said the Ayushman Bharat Scheme was launched by the Union government for the benefit of the poor and the scheme has been implemented all over the country. But the Naveen Patnaik government did not implement the scheme in the state depriving the poor people of the health benefit.
He also alleged that not only the Ayushman Bharat Scheme, several other welfare schemes launched by the central government for the benefit of the poor were not implemented by the state government.
The Union Home Minister said the BJP government at the Centre had implemented various schemes expeditiously and did in five years which were not implemented during the last 60 years.
Singh said everyday 30 to 35 km of national highway was laid in comparison with 8 to 9 km during the Congress rule. Similarly, while only 25 lakh houses were provided to the poor during 2008 to 2014 as many as 1.30 crore houses were provided to people under the Prime Minister Awas Yojana during the last five years.
The Union Home Minister promised to ensure that by 2022 everyone will have a pucca house with electricity, and Ujjwala gas connection.
Singh, during his day-long whirlwind electioneering, also addressed election meetings at Chandbali and Gop in favour of party candidates.