CM addresses Garib Kalyan Mela through video conference
Garib Kalyan Mela has become instrumental in sensitizing govt machinery to the issues of poor: CM
Addressing the beneficiaries of Garib Kalyan Mela (GKM) through video conference today the Chief Minister Narendra Modi said that GKM has become instrumental in sensitizing the government machinery to the issues of poor. “The GKM campaign has also become instrumental in animating the poor to be free from poverty”, he said.Speaking about the government schemes for providing houses to the poor the Chief Minister said that today there are lakhs of homeless poor in the country who belong to BPL group. Many of the government schemes in the country for providing houses to the poor have not been successful. “Only in Gujarat the pakka houses have been handed out to all the poor BPL families belonging to 0-16 point”, he said.
In addition, the state government also planned to hand out the benefits of residential schemes to the BPL families belonging to 17-20 points during GKM. The government has issued orders to pay Rs.21,000 as the first installment of housing assistance to about 2.5 lakh homeless poor families. The state government has also given free-of-cost electricity connections to around three lakh slum-dwellers at the expense of Rs.600 crore, he said.
The state government has put enormous efforts to provide clean drinking water to the poor. Ground water levels have been raised through many water conservation campaigns. This has freed the poor from the problem of water scarcity and unclean water. About 73% houses in rural areas have been given tap water connection, he said.
Moreover, the state government has erected 1.25 lakh kilometer pipeline network for internal water distribution including 2200 km. of Narmada pipeline. This has helped 11,000 villages and 120 cities to get Narmada water. The budget for drinking water has been increased from Rs.600 crore to Rs.3,000 crore during last decade, he said.
The Chief Minister also spoke about the state government’s cleanliness initiatives. “Due to the state government’s cleanliness drive the number of Nirmal Villages have increased from four to 4600 in a span of a decade”, he said. This has also helped to save villages and poor from becoming victims of epidemics and diseases, said the Chief Minister.
Mr. Modi also appealed the poor to get rid of addictions and ill customs and to provide education to their children.
