“Will do in 50 months what others couldn’t do in 50 years”- PM Modi in Varanasi

Varanasi: Targeting the ‘garibi hatao’ campaign of Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said those who could not bring any real change in the lives of the poor or even open bank accounts for them during their five-decade rule were now questioning his government.

The Prime Minister, on his first trip to his Lok Sabha constituency in over eight months, claimed poverty alleviation measures have lacked a proper direction and they are spoken about during election time as a “tradition”.

He also took a dig at the critics of his “Jan Dhan Yojana”, saying had they helped the poor open bank accounts earlier they would have been spared the worry about operation of the recently opened accounts under the scheme.

Modi made the promise while targeting the opposition parties on their allegations that number of poor people operating bank accounts, opened under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, was not increasing. “Main hairan hun. Jinhone khate nahin khole kabhi, woj aaj mera hisaab maang rahe hain,” Modi said.(I am surprised that those who never opened accounts, they are questioning my government’s performance.) Without quoting name of any political party, Modi said that those who had not cared to open bank accounts of poor, are now showing concern for operation of newly opened bank accounts. “It had been better if you had opened bank accounts of poor 40 -50 years back. Then you had not to question me today about operation of these accounts and the bank accounts of poor across the country would have been operational today,” Modi said.

Ready with statistics, the prime minister said that nearly 18 crore accounts had been opened as part of the scheme, and Rs 30,000 crores had been deposited by account holders. “Despite the nationalisation of banks, they have been inaccessible to the poor,” he noted while addressing an audience that largely comprised rickshaw-pullers and their families.