PTI

Lucknow

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said it was unfortunate that people had to wait decades for basics like hospitals, roads and electricity, indirectly targeting the previous governments as he launched the second phase of the Ujjwala cooking gas scheme.

“As we celebrate the 75th year of Independence this year and look at the progress in the past seven-and-a-half decades, we feel that some situations and conditions should have changed decades ago,” he said through video conference.

Modi launched the second phase of the nationwide Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), or Ujjwala 2.0, by virtually presenting cooking free LPG connections to some beneficiaries in Mahoba in Uttar Pradesh, where assembly elections are scheduled early next year.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who was present at the Mahoba event, handed over the documents to the women on his behalf.

“For many fundamental needs such as roads, power, hospitals, cooking gas, schools, water and homes, the people of the country had to wait for decades. This is unfortunate and women suffered the most due to this,” the prime minister said.

“When a family or a society struggles for the basic facilities, how can it fulfil its big dreams?” he said.

Modi said when his government took charge in 2014, it became clear that a solution to such issues had to be found within a stipulated time. Only then could women leave their homes and the kitchens to contribute to nation-building.

“So in the last six years, we worked on mission mode for solutions to all such problems,” the PM said in his televised
address.

He said crores of toilets have been built across the country under the Swachh Bharat Mission and pucca houses constructed for the poor under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.

“Most of these houses are owned by our sisters,” he said while also listing other schemes launched by the BJP-led government at
the Centre.

Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri also participated in the event.