Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pro-people initiatives especially the thrust on social welfare alleviated the people's hardships and improved the quality of their lives, Union Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting and Fisheries L Murugan, said on Tuesday.

The benefits accruing from the numerous schemes of the Modi government are manifold and they touched upon the lives of the poor, ryots and other sections, making a positive impact, he claimed. ''Gone are those days when people experienced difficulties in obtaining a LPG connection. Now the connections can be got by merely sending an SMS,'' the Minister said while speaking at a function held here to mark the completion of eight years of the BJP-led government at the Centre.

About 32 lakh households in Tamil Nadu have benefitted from the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana scheme for providing LPG connections to women from Below Poverty Line (BPL) households. This apart, 1.27 crore drinking water connections have been provided in the state under the Jal Jeevan Mission, Murugan said.

''Today the Prime Minister released the 11th instalment of financial benefits under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme to the farmers, enabling the transfer of Rs 21,000 crore to over 10 crore beneficiary farmer families,'' the Union Minister said while inaugurating a farmers meeting here.

The Jan Dhan bank account scheme, the housing for all and developmental projects were among the numerous initiatives that had improved the quality of people's lives, he claimed.

Also, the Central government has proposed to invest Rs 20,000 crore in Tamil Nadu for fisheries projects such as cold storage, setting up of fish processing plant and deep sea aquaculture. ''Five fishing harbours including Kasimedu in Chennai would be modernised soon,'' Murugan said.

(PTI)

Modi's Welfare Schemes Improved Quality Of People's Lives: Union Minister Murugan