NAVSARI: Taking a swipe at the Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that those who were in power for the longest time since Independence never gave priority to the development of tribal and far-flung areas as it required hard work.
Launching projects worth Rs 3,050 crore for tribal districts of south Gujarat in Khudvel village of Navsari, Modi categorically rejected the narrative that development projects are launched only with an eye on votes ahead of elections and said welfare of poor has been the sole priority of his government for the last eight years.
"I have been in public life for over two decades. I challenge them to dig out a single week when I did not launch a developmental project," he said.
Without naming any political party, the PM added, "Those who ruled the country for a long time after Independence, never gave priority to tribal areas where development works were direly needed, because it needed hard work.
Modi dedicated the Rs 586 crore Astol regional water supply scheme, an engineering marvel, which will end water woes of 174 villages of Dharampur and Kaprada talukas of tribal-dominated Valsad, by lifting water from Madhuban Dam to a height of over ,1800 feet (equivalent to a 200-storey building). The network of pipelines has been constructed criss-crossing the hills in this difficult terrain. The project was announced by Modi during his visit to Navsari in 2018.
"In 2018 when I announced this project, critics had claimed that we were doing it with an eye on the 2019 Lok Sabha election. Now, they have been proved wrong. We lifted water and took it to the top of the hill. Who would do such hard work for only 200-300 votes? We undertook this project to ease people's problems and not due to elections," he said.
The tribal outreach by BJP here witnessed the participation of nearly five lakh people, which Modi said was a moment for pride for him as he had not seen such a rousing reception in the region even when he was the chief minister.
Modi said there were a large number of students in this tribal region who excelled in academics but there was not a single science stream schools or colleges which could have nurtured their dreams of becoming doctors and engineers. "We have completely changed his scenario and there not just medical and engineering colleges but universities too now in tribal areas," he said.
