Want to change lives of common people: Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said the focus of his government was to change the lives of the common people, and listed the fast issuance of Aadhaar Cards, passports and income tax refunds as ares where much has been achieved.

"There was a time when people were more scared of income tax authorities than police officials, particularly among middle class families. I want to change that," the Prime Minister said in his address to the nation on India's 70th Independence Day.

"In fact, while income tax refunds used to take forever earlier, it takes no more than three weeks today."

Similarly, Modi said, while it took six to eight months to get a passport, it just takes a couple of weeks now even though around two crore people apply for it annually now compared with around 20,000 earlier.

"We have also connected 70 crore Indians to Aadhaar and social security schemes," he said in his address.

On energy, the Prime Minister said, renewable sources were his government's focus, notably solar and wind.

Towards that, he added, LED bulbs which were being sold for as high as

Rs 350 each were being distributed by his government for Rs 50 each

now.

So far, he said, 13 crore such bulbs had been distributed and the target was 77 crore bulbs. "These 70 crore LED bulbs can save 20,000 MW of

electricity worth Rs 1.25 lakh crore."

To reach electricity to the remote corners of the country, 50,000 km of transmission lines were being erected now as opposed to 30,000-35,000 km earlier.

"Electricity has already reached 10,000 villages out of the 18,000 unelectricified villages.

"After 60 years of freedom, only 14 crore LPG (cooking gas) connections were added. But we have added more than 4 crore new connections in just 60 weeks."

--IANS

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