PM Modi interacts with beneficiaries of 'Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra'

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said people have immense confidence in his government after looking at his work for 10 years, as he slammed the past dispensations for considering themselves 'mai-baap' of citizens and working with vote bank in mind.

Modi also said the four big 'castes' for him are poor, youth, women, farmers, and asserted that their rise will make India developed.

He made the remarks after interacting with the 'Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra' beneficiaries via video conferencing.

The Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra is being undertaken across the country with an aim to attain saturation of flagship schemes of the government by ensuring that the benefits of these schemes reach all targeted beneficiaries in a time bound manner, according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

In his remarks after interacting with the beneficiaries, Modi said Bharat is neither going to stop nor tire as the people of the country have resolved to make the country developed.

“Even in various corners of the country there is such enthusiasm for the yatra and there is for a reason for it, as people have seen Modi, his work, in the last 10 years and therefore, they have immense confidence in the government and its efforts.”

“People have also seen that period when earlier governments used to consider themselves 'mai-baap' of the people. Therefore, even after decades of independence, a big portion of the population was deprived of basic facilities,” Modi said.

Mai-baap is a Hindi term which loosely translates as a government having a feudal mindset.

More than half the population had lost faith in governments, he said.

Modi said governments in the past used to look at political benefit and vote bank while undertaking works.

“Therefore, the people never used to trust the announcements of such 'mai-baap' governments. We have changed this and the government in place now considers people as form of God and we work with 'seva bhav' not 'satta bhav'.

He said that in just 15 days of the 'Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra', people are walking along and joining it.  “People are now identifying the 'raths' in the yatra as the 'Modi Ki guarantee wali gaadi',” he said.

Uptil now, the vehicle of 'Modi ki guarantee' has reached over 12,000 panchayats and more than 30 lakh people have benefited from it, the prime minister said.

“Mothers and sisters are reaching out to this vehicle of 'Modi ki guarantee'. People are giving this the shape of a people's movement and taking it forward,” he said.

A voice is heard across country that Modi's guarantee begins from where people's expectations from others end, the prime minister said.

During the event, Modi also launched an initiative to increase number of Jan Aushadhi Kendras, which sell medicines at subsidised rates, from 10,000 to 25,000.  The prime minister dedicated to the nation the landmark 10,000th Jan Aushadi Kendra at AIIMS, Deoghar.  He also launched the 'Drone Didi Yojana'.

The scheme aims to provide drones to 15,000 select women Self Help Groups during the period 2024-25 to 2025-2026 for providing rental services to farmers for agriculture purpose.