'NDA Govt has honoured promises which Cong failed to fulfill'

The BJP-led NDA government has implemented, within a year of its coming to power, several promises which Congress failed to fulfil in 60 years of its rule, Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani today said.

NDA has implemented several promises which Congress failed to fulfil in its 60 years' rule, she said at a function here.

"IIT for Kerala was a promise the Congress had made, but it was never fulfilled. But, BJP government announced IIT for Kerala in its first budget itself and IIT at Palakkad started functioning last week," she said.

Irani took a dig at former Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development and local MP, Shashi Tharoor, saying "What the Congress HRD Minister did not do for the state, BJP had fulfilled within a year."

Another major achievement of NDA was the passing of the Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIIT) legislation which was pending in Parliament during the previous UPA rule.

She also said her ministry had achieved good progress in the target of setting up separate toilets for girls and boys in government schools in the country.

"I am not going to tell now how far we have achieved. It will be announced by Prime Minister during the August 15 Independence Day speech," she added.

On the success of the flagship "Jan Dhan" programme of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she said even though doubts were raised by different quarters on its implementation, a total of Rs 20,700 crore had been mobilised by banks under this scheme.

She said 99 per cent of the population in the country had been covered under programme, which was 'something the Congress did not do in its 60 years of rule'.