Period before 2014 era of scams, poor were robbed: PM Modi

The prime minister said the country received two major positive news in the first year of ‘Amrit Kaal’ – decreasing poverty and increasing prosperity.

“As per the report of NITI Aayog, within just five years, 13.5 crore Indians have moved above the poverty line… A few days back, another report was published. According to this report, the number of income tax returns filed this year also indicates something very important. There has been a huge increase in the average income of the people in the last nine years,” PM Modi said.

The PM said the Income Tax figures showed that “the trust of the citizens of the country in their government is continuously becoming stronger.”

“It is clearly visible to them that the economy which ranked number 10 in the world before 2014, has reached 5th position today. The citizens of the country cannot forget the period before 2014, which was an era of scams and corruption. The poor were robbed of their rights, their money even before it reached them. Today, all the money meant for the poor is directly reaching their accounts,” PM Modi said.

The PM attributed the high spending on welfare policies as an outcome of “plugging the leakage in the system”.

“The investment made on such a large scale has also created jobs in every nook and corner of the country. One such example is the Common Service Centres. Since 2014, five lakh new common service centres have been set up in the villages of the country. Every Common Service Centre is providing jobs to many people today. So, the welfare of the villages and the poor was ensured and at the same time employment opportunities were also created,” the PM said.

Talking about the newly appointed teachers, PM Modi said they were “going to play a major role in implementing the National Education Policy”.

Speaking about the NEP, PM Modi said, “Under this, equal importance has been laid upon both traditional knowledge as well as state-of-the-art technology. A new curriculum has also been chalked out for primary education. Another commendable work has been done in terms of imparting education in mother tongue. A great injustice was done to those students who did not know English, by not allowing them education in their mother tongue. It was against social justice. Now our government has done away with this injustice. Now in the curriculum, emphasis is being laid on books in regional languages. This will be the basis of the massive reform in the education system of the country.”