Not just public, allies also abandoned Cong: Scindia on opposition to EVMs

Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has questioned the Congress for repeatedly doubting the efficacy of EVMs during elections. The Minister pointed out that even Congress allies had now abandoned it on this issue and it was time the party also woke up.

"Congress should look at the response of Samajwadi Party and TMC. When will Congress understand that the path it has taken is not what the people of the country and its (Congress) alliance partners want? Now such is the situation of Congress that not only people have abandoned them but also its partners within the INDI alliance have done so. We and you do not need to say anything to Congress, because the people of the country are telling Congress - the people of Haryana, Maharashtra have told Congress. Parties within the INDI alliance are asking Congress 'ab to jaag jao, Kumbhakaran ki neend se,", Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia told ANI in an interview.

 

Scindia also said that the government under PM Modi was committed to the progress of the nation and believed in 100 percent saturation of all schemes.

"Today, the Prime Minister has taken the last villages across India which were always known as the last villages of India, the last development will take place there... He has renamed them as the vibrant villages and the first villages of India. For the first time in the history of India, any Prime Minister has committed that every central government minister will visit the vibrant villages of India. For example, 700 ministerial visits have taken place just to the northeast. We are very clear that development will start from those first vibrant villages and then go to the core... We are looking at 100% saturation of any one single issue that we will take up and we are committed to that." he said.

The Union Minister singled out the last 10 years of governance saying that almost 60 percent of what had been built in the last 60 years was done in the last 10 years.

"...In 60 years what was built, 60 per cent of that has been built in 10 years. 45,000 kilometres of Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sarak Yojana have been built in the last 10 years at a cost of Rs 50,000 crores. That is as far as highways are concerned. If you look at railways, the pace of building railway tracks was roughly about 6.5 kilometres a month. It has now grown to over 19 kilometres a month. In the last 10 years, 2,000 kilometres of railway tracks have been built. In the northeast, three to four states are already connected by railways and we will connect the balance in the next two to three years... In my last portfolio in the area of civil aviation, we had nine airports. Today we have 17 airports... Development and progress have grown by leaps and bounds and that's why the first semiconductor fab that's coming up in the northeast is in Assam. Second in India... So the North East has transformed is the growth engine of India. India is growing at a very fast clip between six and a half to seven and a half per cent per year. But the North East states are growing between nine and a half to 11 per cent per year. And therefore when Prime Minister Narendra Modi says that the North East will be the growth engine of India that transformation has already taken place on the indian landscape," he said.

The Minister was also critical of the Congress opposing the proposed One Nation -One Election bill.