Impact of corruption felt most by poor, marginalised people: PM Modi

Kolkata: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the impact of corruption is felt most by the poor and the marginalised people.

He said corruption affects the allocation of resources, markets and diminishes the quality of life of people.

Addressing virtually the G-20 anti-corruption Ministerial meeting at Kolkata the PM said "India has a strict policy of zero tolerance against corruption." He said Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore had cautioned us against greed as it prevents us from realising the truth. Modi said, "We are aggressively pursuing economic offenders. We have enacted the economic offender act and have recovered assets worth over 1.8 billion dollars from economic offenders and fugitives".

Modi said at G-20, our collective efforts can significantly support the fight against corruption.

"At the G-20 summit in 2018, I had presented 9-point agenda for action against fugitive economic offenders for asset recovery. I am pleased to note that decisive steps are being taken by your group", the pm said.

Modi said audit institutions need to be given regard in the fight against corruption.

The PM said welfare scheme leakages have been plugged and 360 billion dollars given to people through direct transfers in India.