KOLKATA: Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh today accused the opposition ruled States of denying people the benefit of Modi’s schemes. He said, the most striking example of this is West Bengal where many people have not even heard of some of the public welfare schemes of the central government, which have otherwise gained enormous popularity across the country. Speaking to media persons on the sidelines of a series of BJP election meetings in the Lok Sabha constituencies of Howrah and Hooghly today, Dr. Jitendra Singh recalled that even Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in the public rally at Howrah yesterday mentioned that Howrah was at one point of time known to be the hub of industry in India.. Dr. Jitendra Singh said, people of West Bengal have now begun to realise how the decades-long rule first by CPM and then by TMC has thrown Bengal back for several years and brought entire development to a virtual halt. He recalled that once upon a time, the common adage was that what Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow, which in other words means that Bengal was always ahead of the other States and other regions of the country. But unfortunately, it is the other way now, he regretted. Dr. Jitendra Singh said, since most of the people-centric schemes like Ujjawala scheme to provide Gas cylinders to needy households or Swatchhta Abhiyan constituting the construction for Toilets for women and other households or PM Awas Yozna for construction of pucca houses for those who cannot afford it have not been implemented on the ground in West Bengal. This, he said, has happened because for most of the schemes, it is imperative to have the coordination and cooperation by the State administration down up to the level of the district and Block administration, but here instead of coming forth with such coordination and cooperation, the State administration is invariably instructed by the political establishment not to cooperate in achieving the targets of the Central schemes initiated by the Modi government. Thanks to social media and other means of real-time information, said Dr Jitendra Singh,people of West Bengal have increasingly realised how while in several other States like Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, all these schemes have achieved the targets and households, and achieved more than 100% saturation, these are yet to reach the needy in West Bengal. The people, therefore, now no longer want to live in deprivation and have made up their mind to turn the tables in ongoing elections so that they too are the beneficiaries of Modi’s welfare schemes like in other parts of the country, he said. Taking a dig at the TMC Govt, Dr. Jitendra Singh said, the TMC, the Congress and other opposition parties keep criticising the Modi government for unemployment but on the contrary the State governments run by these parties don’t allow the Modi government initiatives which would have led to generation of employment in large numbers as well as job creation. Under the TMC rule and earlier during the CPM rule, Dr. Jitendra Singh said, three generations of the Bengal youth have missed the opportunity which was available to the other States of the country. In the last ten years of the Modi government, for example, a new Startup policy was initiated and the number of Startups in India went up from around 350 to 1 1⁄2 Lakh and India rose at number three globally in the StartUp ecosystem. But the benefit of this was not seen in equal measure in West Bengal in spite of the youth here being highly talented and awakened, he lamented. No government in the world can provide a salaried government job to each youth, said Dr. Jitendra Singh, and added that even the TMC government led by Mamata Banerjee understands this very well. But a responsible government like the one headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is always conscious about creating new avenues for the youth. Unfortunately, while there is a rising boom of self-employment and livelihood opportunities outside the government jobs in the rest of the country, the same is yet to happen in the State of West Bengal, he added.
