New Delhi: President Droupadi Murmu in her address to both the Houses of Parliament on Tuesday stressed the need to build a Bharat by 2047 whose diversity is even more vivid and whose unity becomes even more unshakeable.
“By 2047, we have to build a nation, which not only embraces its glorious past, but also encompasses every golden aspect of modernity. We have to build a Bharat, which is self-reliant and also able to fulfill its humanitarian obligations. A Bharat which has no poverty and where the middle class is also prosperous,” she said.
“A Bharat whose youth and women power will be at the forefront to give direction to the society and the nation, and whose youth are well ahead of time, a Bharat whose diversity is even more vivid and whose unity becomes even more unshakeable,” she said.
“Today India has a government which is stable, fearless, decisive and working with lofty ambitions. Today India has a government which respects the honest. Today India has a government working for permanent solutions to the problems of the poor and their lasting empowerment. Today India has a government working at an unprecedented speed and scale,” said the President.
“From Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile trinity, which is weeding out fake beneficiaries to launching One Nation One Ration Card, we have undertaken major enduring reforms. Over the years, the country has developed a stable and transparent regime in the form of DBT and Digital India. Today the monetary benefits of more than 300 schemes are directly reaching the bank accounts of the beneficiaries,” she said.
“So far, an amount of more than Rupees 27 lakh crore has reached crores of beneficiaries with complete transparency. The World Bank report acknowledges that it was only due to such schemes and mechanisms that India was able to prevent crores of people from falling below the poverty line during the Covid pandemic,” she added, saying that every taxpayer feels proud when corruption is reined in and every penny of tax is put to good use.
The President said that ‘poverty eradication’ is no longer just a slogan. Now my government is working towards empowering the poor by providing a permanent addressal to their concerns. For instance, a major cause of poverty is illness. A serious ailment completely shatters the morale of a poor family, leaving generations in debt. To free the poor from this worry, a nationwide Ayushman Bharat Yojana was launched. Under this scheme, more than 50 crore countrymen have been provided the facility of free treatment, she said.
“The Ayushman Bharat Yojana has saved crores of poor from becoming poorer, preventing them from spending Rupees 80,000 crore. Today medicines are being made available at very low cost in about 9,000 Jan Aushadhi Kendras spread across the country. As a result, about Rupees 20,000 crore of the poor have been saved in the past few years. That is, from Ayushman Bharat and Jan Aushadhi schemes alone, the countrymen have got assistance worth Rupees one lakh crore,” she added.
She said that during the Covid pandemic, we have witnessed the difficulties of the poor all over the world. But India is one of those countries which accorded top priority to save the lives of the poor and ensured that poor were not deprived of food. I am happy that my government has decided to implement the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana in line with the changing circumstances. This is the hallmark of a sensitive and pro-poor government. The government has spent about Rs 3.5 lakh crore for free food grains to the poor under the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, she informed the Parliament.
The President said that 11 crore small farmers of the country are also on the priority list of my government. These small farmers were deprived of government priority for decades. Now every effort is being made to make them empowered and prosperous. These small farmers have been given financial assistance of more than Rs 2.25 lakh crore under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi. An important aspect of this is that there are about three crore women among these beneficiaries.
So far, the women farmers have received about Rupees 54,000 crore under this scheme. Similarly, while increasing the coverage of crop insurance, soil health card and Kisan Credit Card (KCC) for small farmers, my government has, for the first time, also linked cattle bearers and fishermen with the facility of Kisan Credit Card. My government stands firmly with small farmers for enhancing their capacity from setting up of FPOs i.e. Farmer Producer Organizations to increase the MSP of crops, she said.
The President said that her government has awakened the aspirations of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. These classes were most deprived of the benefits of development. Now that basic facilities are reaching this section, these people are becoming capable of having newer dreams. Programmes such as Dr Ambedkar Utsav Dham, Amrit Jaldhara and Yuva Udyami Yojana are being run for the socio-economic empowerment of Scheduled Castes.
Talking about social infrastructure, she said that while 145 medical colleges were opened in the country between 2004 and 2014, more than 260 medical colleges have been opened during the tenure of my government from 2014 to 2022. The number of graduate and postgraduate seats for medical students has now doubled in the country as compared to earlier periods. While there were about 725 universities in the country before 2014, more than 300 new universities have been set up in the last eight years. More than 5000 colleges have also been opened in the country during this period.
She said that new records have been made in the country in terms of physical infrastructure. About 3.81 lakh km of roads were built in the country till 2013-14 under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana. However, by 2021-22, this network of rural roads has increased to more than 7 lakh km. So far, more than 99 percent of the country's habitations have been connected by road. Studies by many organizations, including the World Bank, indicate that rural roads have had a very positive impact on employment, agriculture, education and health in villages. /BI/
