NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday asserted that India was now being looked upon as ”a nation of possibilities” where ”next-generation infrastructures are being prepared”.
Addressing the Jagran Forum in the capital, the PM praised his Government’s efforts to provide gas connections, build roads and open bank accounts for the deprived sections, ruing why these had not been done in the previous 67 years.
He said previously there had been 55 per cent gas connection, while there was 90 per cent in the past four years after his Government had come to power, ”Think, for 67 years, only 70 per cent of the population had power. Now in four years, 95 per cent of villages have electrification.”
Stating that there had been major progress in the past four years since his Government came to office, Mr Modi said earlier only 50 per cent had bank accounts, today almost every family was linked with bank accounts. He also took a swipe at previous dispensations for the country’s laggardly pace of development, saying ”lot of people with big names and surnames have come and gone.”
Creditting Dainik Jagran on completion of 75 years of publication, he said it had ”played an important role in the reconstruction of the country”, and the newspaper was now playing a ”significant role” in raising awareness in the country.
”The work you started in the background of the Quit India Movement today is now seen in collaborating on New India’s new expectations.”
Identifying himself as a reader of the Dainik Jagran, the PM said ”based on experience, I can say that the Dainik Jagran in the past decades has given power to change in the country and society.”
He praised the media’s efforts in making ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ and ‘Swachchhta Abhiyaan’ mass movements. (AGENCIES)