Prime Minister Modi said, every citizen is working towards fulfilling the dream of a developed India with utmost dedication. He highlighted the importance of developing the social system, economy and Panchayati Raj system in the villages of India in order to create a developed nation and pointed out that the present government is working tirelessly to create a robust system in place and expanding its scope, unlike the previous governments that discriminated with the Panchayats.
Throwing light on the lack of efforts made by the previous governments before 2014, the Prime Minister informed that the finance commission granted less than 70,000 crores which was a paltry amount when one considers the scale of the country, but after 2014, this grant was increased to more than 2 lakh crores. He also mentioned that merely 6,000 Panchayat Bhawans were constructed a decade before 2014, whereas the present government constructed more than 30,000 Panchayat Bhawans in the last 8 years.
He also informed that less than 70 Gram Panchayats were connected with optical fiber compared to more than 2 lakh Gram Panchayats that got optical fiber connectivity after the present government came to power. He also noted the lack of faith shown in the existing Panchayati Raj system by the previous governments after India’s independence.
Recalling the words of Mahatma Gandhi that ‘India lives in its villages’, the Prime Minister pointed out that the previous regime barely paid any heed to his ideology which resulted in the Panchayati Raj remaining neglected for decades. The Prime Minister said that today, Panchayats are coming up as the life force of India’s development. “Gram Panchayat Vikas Yojana is helping Panchayats to work effectively”, Shri Modi added.
The Prime Minister said that the government is working ceaselessly to bridge the gap between villages and cities. Panchayats are being made smart in this age of the digital revolution. Technology is being harnessed in the projects being undertaken by the Panchayats.
The Prime Minister gave the example of Amrit Sarovar where issues like the selection of sites and completion of the project are being done with the help of technology. He said the GeM portal for public procurement at the Panchayat level will make procurement by the Panchayats easy and transparent. Local cottage industry will find a strong avenue for their sales, the Prime Minister said.
The Prime Minister talked about the benefit of technology in the PM Svamitva scheme. He informed that the scheme is changing the scene of property rights in villages and reducing disputes and litigation. The use of drone technology is ensuring property documents for the people without any discrimination. He informed that work of Property Card is completed in 75 thousand villages of the country. He praised the Madhya Pradesh Government for good work in this direction.
Referring to the indifference to the development of Chhindwara, the Prime Minister blamed the thinking of certain political parties. He said that the ruling parties broke the trust of the rural poor by ignoring the basic needs of the rural areas after Independence.
