PM woos Kerala, flays ‘political polarisation’ to help the corrupt
Taking a dig at the opposition parties, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that the country is ready to fight corruption, but whenever action has been taken against corruption, there has been a polarization in politics against it.
“Political polarization is taking place in the country to help the corrupt. People should be vigilant against this,” he said while addressing BJP workers in Kochi.
Referring to his Independence Day speech, the Prime Minister said that the biggest challenge in the path of development is corruption.
To woo the people of Kerala, one of the states where the BJP is trying to spread its pan-India footprint further, Modi said the BJP-ruled states are making progress in development, “double-engined”. considering the potential for development”. BJP-led government at the Centre. He said that such development can happen in Kerala also.
He said the people of Kerala see the BJP as a “ray of hope” for the state’s development and believe in the party’s sincere efforts in transforming the state.
The Prime Minister arrived in Kochi on Thursday on a two-day visit. During his tenure in the state, Modi will commission India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, at the Cochin Shipyard Limited on Friday and launch a few projects, including the expansion of the Kochi Metro.
Addressing a large gathering of party workers, Modi said the Center is working to meet the needs of Kerala and making efforts to ensure that basic amenities are provided to the marginalized, poor, and people from Dalit communities. reached. He said that projects worth one lakh crore rupees are being implemented in Kerala under various projects by the Centre.
He said that Kerala has got 2 lakh houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, out of which 1 lakh has been constructed. He stressed that the Center would set up medical colleges in all the districts of the country and this would benefit the students and nurses of Kerala.
Speaking on the central government’s schemes, Modi said that during the pandemic, the Center gave free rations to 1.5 crore people in Kerala. He said that 3.5 lakh farmers of the state have benefitted under PM Kisan Yojana.
He said the Center has set aside Rs 50,000 crore for the development of roads in Kerala. “We are attaching great importance to the connectivity of the state,” he said, referring to the inauguration of a section of the Kochi Metro and laying the foundation stone for the development of the railway station at Ernakulam.
Modi also visited Sri Adi Shankar Janmabhoomi Kshetram in Kalady. Later, he laid the foundation stone of various projects of Kochi Metro and Indian Railways in Kochi worth about Rs 4,500 crore.
Modi said the Center has continuously worked to make the metro rail system the most prominent mode of urban transport. “The first metro in our country ran about 40 years ago and only 250 km of metro routes were added in the next 30 years,” he said. “In the last eight years, more than 500 km of metro routes have been laid in the country and at present work on new routes of over 1,000 km is in progress.”
Stating that the government is “completely transforming” the Indian Railways, he said, railway stations in the country are being developed like airports today.
