Attacking the 10 years of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) rule at the Centre, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that it was the Congress’s culture to “obstruct”, “keep projects hanging” and “mislead the public”on development issues.
He claimed that work on railway and road projects gained a new momentum after his party assumed power at the Centre.
“The previous government [UPA] laid only 1,100 km of new railway lines during its last three years and we laid 2,100 km during first three years of our rule. As for track doubling, they had done only 1,300 km in three years, while we did 2,600 km. They had electrified only 2,500 km in three years and we did 4,300 km. We took up 90 irrigation projects that were endlessly dragged through the period of the previous government and completed them,” he claimed.
He added that development picked up pace as he had ensured that targets were reached on time.
Mr. Modi also claimed that around ₹57,000 crore of public money, meant for poor beneficiaries of various schemes, used to be leaked annually during the previous government and added that his government stopped all the leakage.
Dismissing criticisms against demonetisation, Mr. Modi said that it had helped the government curb corruption and eliminate black money.
“After demonetisation, we have locked 3 lakh companies that were practising unethical financial practices. After an investigation into the activities of 4,000 companies, around ₹4,000 crore of black money was seized,” he claimed.
Defending the enactment of the Goods and Service Tax (GST), the Prime Minister said that the trading community supported the new tax regime.
“Every State and political party is involved in the enactment of GST. Only a small section of traders are opposing some minor shortcomings and not GST as a whole. If they come up with constructive suggestions, we are open to incorporating them,” he said.
He asked the community of small traders not to worry about GST as his government was committed to serving their interests.