Modi govt never offered freebies for votes, implemented welfare schemes, says Mandaviya

The Narendra Modi government never offered freebies to people to elicit votes but implemented public welfare schemes without any discrimination, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said here on Thursday.

Speaking about the achievements of the Modi government in the last nine years, he said the country has progressed leaps and bounds during this period.

"The country dealt with Covid-19 successfully. Not only were 130 crore people of the country vaccinated, the vaccines were exported to other countries as well," the minister said.

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The Modi government has prepared a roadmap for making India an advanced nation by 2047 and has started working on it, he said, adding that it has done away with the 'rewari' (freebies) culture" and focused on empowering the people.

Mandaviya also said that more than 12 crore families benefitted from the Ayushman Bharat scheme. Around 42,000 hospitals across the country are covered under this scheme, he said.

Mandaviya claimed that the people of Punjab could not benefit from this scheme as the state government did not release the money to the hospitals on time.

It was only after the intervention of the Union government that the people of Punjab started getting benefits under this scheme again, he claimed.

Manadviya said that 9,500 Jan Aushadhi centres were in operation across the country and more than 250 of those were in Punjab alone.

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"Prime Minister Modi has dedicated his whole life to making India a world leader and a superpower. The whole world is saying that the 21st century belongs to India," he said.

"The country has moved from policy paralysis to decisive policy and economically from fragile five to top five," said the Union minister.

Hitting out at the Congress, Mandaviya said that in the last nine years, India has done away with the "Mera parivar, Mera vikas" attitude of the Congress party and has adopted the policy of "sab ka sath, sab ka vikas".

"Earlier the voice of India used to be ignored, but now when India speaks, the world listens," he said.