GANDHINAGAR, Jun 28: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said future historians would divide the country's journey into two phases -- before 2014 and after 2014 -- and asserted every rupee released by the Narendra Modi government reaches the targeted beneficiaries in full.
Invoking Mahatma Gandhi's idea of "Ram Rajya", he insisted good governance was not limited to announcing schemes or allocating budgets, but ensuring that every eligible citizen actually received the intended benefits.
He was speaking after launching the pilot project of the PM-Family Care Tracker (PM-FCT) in Gandhinagar, saying the integrated digital platform would ensure that pregnant women, mothers and children receive all eligible government benefits through continuous monitoring and timely intervention.
Addressing the gathering, the Lok Sabha member from the Gujarat capital described 2014, the year when Modi assumed office as PM, as a "historic turning point" in independent India's history.
Shah insisted future historians would divide the country's journey into two phases -- "before 2014 and after 2014".
He said Modi-led governments after 2014 introduced long-term policy planning across sectors such as national security, infrastructure, education, culture, economy and self-reliance, while giving priority to improving the lives of the poor.
Referring to a statement made by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi that only "15 paise" out of every rupee sent by the Centre reached the poor, Shah said the Modi government had changed the system through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) and the JAM (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile) architecture.
"Today, when Narendra Modi sends one rupee, the entire rupee reaches directly into the bank account of the poor," he affirmed.
The senior BJP leader emphasised that 70 crore poor people were at the centre of the Modi government's welfare policies since 2014.
He contrasted poverty in Gujarat with what he said he witnessed in eastern Uttar Pradesh (Purvanchal) before 2014, saying many families had no houses, electricity, toilets or piped water, women cooked on traditional stoves, people struggled to arrange even one meal a day.
For 70 years after Independence, these 70 crore people did not get their rightful share of development, but the Modi government has changed this situation, he stated.
Shah noted that the BJP-led government at the Centre, over the past 12 years, sought to improve the lives of 70 crore poor people by providing houses, electricity, toilets, piped drinking water, LPG connections, free food grains, health insurance of up to Rs 5 lakh and affordable medicines.
Prior to the pilot project launch event, Shah addressed BJP workers from the Sabarmati assembly seat of Ahmedabad. (PTI)
