Slamming successive Congress-NCP governments in Maharashtra for being steeped in "corruption", Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said time has come to wash away its "sins of 15 years".
"15th October is the festival of washing away the sins of the 15 years of Congress-NCP governments, to bring an end to 15 years of corruption and destruction," he said addressing a rally at Erandol in Jalgaon district.
"The governments in Maharashtra did not spare anything and anybody from corruption. They snatched away the food from the platters of children who were supposed to get it under the mid-day meal scheme, they left the farms thirsty and took away electricity meant for farmers," he said.
Modi said years of neglect by the state government had led to large-scale migration of the youth from villages to large cities and towns in search of jobs.
"I know what poverty is, the pain one feels when one does not have money to buy medicine for an ailing mother...I want that the youth does not have to leave their old parents, their villages, their farms behind and go looking for jobs in cities," he said.
"My government is committed to people, to doing big things for small people," he said amid loud cries of "Modi! Modi!" from a responsive crowd.
He slammed the erstwhile Congress-led UPA government for dragging its feet in completing the Sardar Sarovar dam project, resulting in denial of electricity worth Rs 400 crore every year to Maharashtra that it would have got free of cost.
"Since 2004, they (Centre) did not allow us to put even a bag of cement on the dam. Today, the work has started on construction of a hydel power project at Sardar Sarovar dam which would let Maharashtra avail of Rs 400 crore worth of electricity free of cost every year," he said.
