In his fifth and last Independence Day speech ahead of 2019 general elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today reminded people what the nation has achieved in the last four years - feats that were impossible, he suggested, for the Congress-led UPA government considering the pace at which they worked till 2013. The Prime Minister mentioned some of the key policy decisions such as GST and Benami Law that were discussed for years but did not see the light of the day till his government came to power.
He said that what we have achieved in last four years cannot be measured unless we remember where we were in 2013.
Referring to Swachh Bharat, free LPG connection under Ujjwala Yojna and electrification of 18,000 villages under Saubhagya Yojna, Prime Minister Modi said that all these initiatives would have taken years or decades for previous regime to execute.
Here's a list of what PM Modi thinks the Congress would not have achieved in decades
Building toilets
Prime Minister Modi today said that if the pace of the UPA government's last year was maintained, it would have taken decades, centuries and generations to build as many toilets as his government has done. He said: "If we had continued at the same pace at which toilets were being built in 2013, the pace at which electrification was happening in 2013, then it would have taken us decades to complete them." PM Modi had announced the Swachh Bharat initiative in his maiden Independence Day speech in 2014.
Providing LPG to the poor
The Prime Minister today said that if we had continued the pace of previous government, it would not have been possible for the government even in next hundred years to provide free LPG connection to every household in the country. Launched in 2016, Ujjwala Yojna aims at providing free LPG connection to 8 crore poor families. Till the first week of this month, the government had distributed 5 crore LPG connections to poor families. As many as 3 crore additional free connections will be given to poor households by March 2020.
Electricity in villages
The Prime Minister said that if the NDA government had worked at the pace of 2013, it would have taken another two decades to electrify all the villages in our country. Earlier in April, the government announced that it had connected all 18,000 villages - that were not electrified till 2013 - to the national electricity grid. In a statement isued in July, the Prime Minister's Office had said: "These 18,000 villages which were not electrified even after 70 years of independence were electrified in the last four years."
Infrastructure
Prime Minister Modi today said that his government has built twice as many highways. He said that the country was producing grains at a record level and manufacturing mobile phones like never before. He further said that the country was witnessing a record selling of tractors. "The country is constructing toilets in schools. It is also building new IITs, IIMs and AIIMs," the Prime Minister said.
MSP
The Prime Minister today said that economists and farming communities were demanding that the farmers get 1.5 times the cost of their production. "The discussions were on for years. Files used to move and then get stuck. But we decided to give the farmers 1.5 times of their production cost," the PM said. Earlier on July 4, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Modi approved the increase in the MSPs for all kharif crops for FY 2018-19. The Budget for FY 2018-19 had indicated that a paradigm shift in the agricultural policies was needed to achieve the objective of doubling farmers' income by 2022.
GST
On tax reform, the Prime Minister said that everyone wanted the GST to come but a decision could not be reached for many years. He further said that during these years, only politics, elections, profit and loss dominated the GST discussion. "Today, with the openness of small traders and entrepreneurs, the country has launched the GST," PM Modi said. The GST was first proposed in February 1986 by then Finance Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh. In 2000, then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpyee introduced the concept and set up a committee headed by the then West Bengal Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta to design a GST model. After 17 tumultuous years, Modi-led NDA government launched the GST on the intervening night of June 30 - July 1, 2017.
One-Rank-One-Pension
The Prime Minister said that the retired military officials were demanding one-rank-one-pension for more than three decades, but no government listened to them. "Somebody had to take that decision. You gave that responsibility to us, we fulfilled that," the Prime Minister said. OROP is the uniform desire of all three defence services. Ex-servicemen are presently drawing pension that is not consistent with their rank and/or length of service. On April 6, 2016, the Cabinet gave its ex-post facto approval for implementation of OROP.