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This is an archive article published on November 15, 2023
In Jharkhand, PM Modi pays tribute to tribal icon Birsa Munda, unveils projects worth Rs 7,200 crore
Modi on Wednesday launched the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra to ensure last-mile delivery of government welfare schemes and the PM Janjati Adivasi Nyaya Maha Abhiyan to empower particularly vulnerable tribal groups.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a visit to Ulihatu, the birth place of freedom fighter Birsa Munda, in Khunti district, Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2023. (PTI Photo)
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In Jharkhand, PM Modi pays tribute to tribal icon Birsa Munda, unveils projects worth Rs 7,200 crore
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Stating that he had come to the land of tribal icon Birsa Munda in Jharkhand’s Khunti to “pay off his debt” to the deprived, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched two schemes – one to ensure last-mile delivery of welfare schemes and another for the protection of the particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs). He also unveiled projects worth around Rs 7,200 crore related to coal, petroleum, railways, roads, education etc.
After visiting Birsa Munda’s descendants in Khunti’s Ulihatu village and a museum dedicated to tribal freedom fighters, PM Modi addressed a gathering at Birsa Munda College ground in Khunti and urged the audience to take a pledge to make India a developed nation. “We take a pledge to fulfil the dream of making India ‘atmanirbhar’ and a developed nation by ߿ to shed the slavery mindset; to feel proud of the country’s rich heritage; to strengthen the unity of the country and respect the people who protect the country; and to fulfil the duty of being a citizen of this country,” he said.
The two schemes launched included the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra, where government officials will go to villages and ensure last-mile delivery of its welfare schemes, and the PM Janjati Adivasi Nyaya Maha Abhiyan to empower the PVTGs.
PM Modi said that during his government’s last two tenures, 13 crore people came out of poverty.
“Before we came, many people were devoid of basic necessities. People had left hope that their lives would be changed and the government thought that they were ‘maa baap’ but we worked with a ‘sevak ki bhavna’ (service mentality)…People who were deprived, we gave them importance. The government went to the people who were far away. Bureaucracy and the people and the files, laws and rules were the same, but the thinking changed; therefore, the results changed,” PM Modi said.
PM Modi said that he made the deprived his priority as once, he had eaten with them and lived with them and their families. “Today in the land of Birsa Munda, I have come to pay off that debt,” he added.
Like there are most backwards among the backwards, there are PVTGs that are backward among the Adivasi community, PM Modi said. “They (PVTGs) did not get pucca houses, no schooling for their children…but now we are reaching [them]. Earlier governments only added to the data but I am adding to their lives,” he said.
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PM Modi further said that he would ensure that the work was done. “Modi’s guarantee means that there is a guarantee that the guarantee will be fulfilled,” he added.
In 2018, he said, he had started the Gram Swaraj Yojana and sent 1,000 officers “from their air-conditioned offices” to various villages. The Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra will follow a similar pattern, he added.
PM Modi also said there needs to be a new energy in India’s ‘Amrit Kaal’ and for that, he told the crowd an ‘Amrit Mantra’. If a developed India has to be built, four ‘Amrit’ pillars have to be strengthened. “The four pillars are women power, youth power, agricultural power and power of our poor and middle class. The more we strengthen them, the building of Viksit Bharat will rise. In the last 10 years, we have had so much work, which has never happened before,” PM Modi said.
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