Poor feel empowered, confident when they get pucca houses, gas cylinders: PM

Varanasi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday mocked the Congress' slogan of 'garibi hatao' (remove poverty) and said the poor feel empowered and confident when they get a pucca house and gas cylinders for their homes.

A poor now says that the day he got a gas cylinder stove in his house the difference between then rich and the poor ended for him, Modi said, addressing the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra here.

He termed the yatra his own "examination" and a feedback mechanism to learn directly from people if welfare schemes meant for them is reaching them.

"The Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra is in a way my 'kasauti' (test) also,' Modi said. "It is my examination... whether whatever I had said and whatever I am doing, I want to hear from you and from the entire country whether it has happened in the right proportion. Whether it has been done for the person for whom it was intended to, and whether the work which was to be done, has happened or not."

Referring to former prime minister Indira Gandhi's 'garibi hatao' slogan, Modi said, "Giving the slogan of 'garibi hatao' is one thing. But a poor now says that the day he got a gas cylinder stove in his house the difference between rich and poor ended. He says his confidence went up, when he started living in a pucca house, and his children could stand with their friends in schools and colleges."

"The children felt humble living in a jhopadi (thatched houses)... there was no confidence. But on getting pucca houses, their life is filled with self-confidence," Modi said.