We converted difficulties into opportunities: Rajnath Singh lauds PM Modi

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday said it is the result of the "jan seva" (public service) being done by the double engine government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's guidance that the entire country along with Lucknow is progressing by leaps and bounds.

Prime Minister Modi inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of 782 development projects worth Rs 34,700 crore from Azamgarh that included inauguration of the airports of Azamgarh, Shravasti, Moradabad, Chitrakoot and Aligarh, and the new terminal of Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport, Lucknow.

Addressing the gathering at an event in his parliamentary constituency, Singh said, "Under the visionary leadership of the prime minister, the specialty of our government has been that we converted difficulties into opportunities. There was already a system running in the country which kept the common man away from the elite class and we removed this system."

"If I talk about the infrastructure in the aviation sector, whereas in 2014 there were only 74 airports in this country, today their number has more than doubled to 149," he added.

Singh said, "It was believed that airports or air travel were only for the upper class and the common man could not travel by air. Air travel served as a gap between the rich and the poor. We have bridged that gap through the regional connectivity scheme UDAN."

Mentioning internet, he said "You can see the same thing in internet connectivity also. Earlier only the rich had access to the internet. We could not even imagine that a poor person would have internet. It is the result of the work done by our government that today everyone, rich and poor, has internet facility."

The minister said the poor, who did not go to banks earlier were connected with banks through Jan Dhan Yojana.

"We have brought the poor of this country at par with the upper class of this country," he said.

Stating that it he was fortunate to represent Lucknow, which was once represented by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Singh, who will be contesting third time from this seat, said, "As the MP of Lucknow, he ensured development in this area and we got an opportunity to take the development further."

"As the representative of Lucknow, I am happy to see the development of this airport, but even more satisfying as a citizen is that my Lucknow and my India is continuously developing under the leadership of PM Modi," he added.