Hitting back at Congress for criticising the Narendra Modi government over its second anniversary celebrations, Union Minister Kalraj Mishra today said the opposition party has a "negative" attitude and is levelling allegations to hide its shortcomings.
"Congress' attitude has always been negative. They are levelling allegations to hide their shortcomings. They have always cheated the country and misled the people through false slogans," the Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises told reporters.
He said the Prime Minister has improved the image of the country internationally.
"Earlier the image of India was that of a weak nation full of corruption. Modi, who has visited 45 countries, has improved the image. US President Barack Obama has said Modi is a man of action and going a step further Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Bligh Turnbull described Modi as a man of action with vision," he said.
It was the Modi government that launched programmes for all sections of the society during its two years in office, he said.
"While programmes like digital India and Make in India have been launched, equal focus has been given on rural India. An allocation of more than Rs two lakh crore has been made for villages, farmers, roads and infrastructure," he said.
The Union Minister said that earlier compensation was
given only when there was crop loss of 50 per cent, but now the government has decided that farmers would be given relief even if they suffer 33 per cent crop loss.
"We made successful attempts to ensure that these schemes are implemented at the ground level," Mishra said.
Replying to a question, he said the government was also working for minorities and free coaching was being given to 9.96 crore youths to enable them crack various entrance and recruitment exams.
"Government is celebrating 'vikas parv' to spread awareness about the work undertaken by it among different sections of the society, including farmers, labourers, women, unorganised sector, poor, down trodden and the common people," he said.
"For the first time, a whopping Rs 61,822 crore has been directly transferred to 31 crore beneficiaries by integrating Jan Dhan scheme, Adhaar and mobile phone.
"The direct benefit transfer subsidy is used in 59 schemes of the government and a total of Rs 36,000 crore has been saved after its adoption," he said.
The Union minister said the PM Suraksha Bima Yojna provides Rs two lakh accidental death cover to those working in the unorganised sector for a premium of just Rs 12 a year.
He said till now there was no pension scheme for the unorganised sector, which accounts for over 90 per cent of the country's total workforce.
"For unorganised sector Atal Pension Yojna has been launched with a provision of Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000/month. Similarly, 21.81 crore accounts have been opened under Jan Dhan scheme and Rs 37,771 crore deposited in them," he said.
He said the Modi government has given priority to fund the "unfunded" small entrepreneurs.
"For this, Mudra Yojna was launched to give small entrepreneurs access to credit from the banks. Mudra scheme provides loan without any collateral and a total of Rs 1.33 lakh crore has been given to 3.26 crore beneficiaries," he said.
