PM Modi hands over keys to Awas Yojna beneficiaries

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday handed over keys to beneficiaries of the Prime Minister Awas Yojana- Grameen (PMAY-G) during a public event here.

Prime Minister Modi also interacted with beneficiaries of 29 districts through video conferencing and later addressed a public rally.

Emphasising on the significance of the PMAY-G scheme which is aimed at empowerment of poor, he said, "Own house makes life comfortable and gives greater conviction to fight poverty. When India will complete 75 years of Independence, every homeless poor citizen will get their own home. We are working with this target and in the last four years, we have taken strong steps in this regard."

Prime Minister Modi also took a jibe at previous governments, saying that instead of empowering the poor by providing them with houses, their only aim was to promote one specific family.

"Earlier governments also tried to do it but unfortunately instead of empowering the poor by giving them home, their only aim was to promote one specific family. Their purpose was to create a vote bank. A house should be good, it should have water, electricity, LPG facility, etc which was never thought of previously," he said.

Comparing statistics of such houses constructed during past regime and tenure of his government, Prime Minister Modi said, "Previous government in its last four years constructed only 25 lakh houses in the whole country whereas the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government constructed 1.25 crore houses in the last four years. Had the previous government continued to rule, they would have taken 20 years to achieve this number. Previous government used to take 18 months to construct houses whereas now houses are being constructed in 12 months. Not only the time period has reduced but the size of the house has also increased. We have also enhanced the government aid for construction of a house from earlier Rs 70,000 to now Rs 1.2 lakh"

He also spoke about Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana (PM-JAY) and elaborated about its benefits.

Prime Minister Modi said, "PM-JAY is going to benefit 50 crore citizens by providing them with a health insurance of up to Rs 5 lakh. It hasn't even been one month but as many as 1 lakh people have already utilised its benefits."

Earlier after arriving at Shirdi, Prime Minister Modi had also visited the renowned Saibaba Samadhi Temple Complex. He is in Shirdi to commemorate the centenary year of Saibaba Samadhi.