Shillong, May 29: The Union Minister for Textiles Smt Smiriti Zubin Irani today interacted with the Radio Jockeys of local FM Stations, Journalist and Editors of the media houses in Shillong on the occasion of the completion of the four years of the Union Government.
During the Press Conference the minister dwelt upon the achievements that the country has achieved during the last four years of the Union Government.
Speaking about the Jan Dhan Yojana the minister said that in these 48 months through the scheme to 31.52 crore citizen of India have opened their bank accounts. India now accounts for 55 per cent of newly opened bank accounts globally between 2014-17, she said. She said that it is the duty of the government to ensure that it serves the banking needs of the unbanked people.
The social security schemes of financial inclusion such as the Suraksha Bima Yojana, Jivan Jyoti Yojana and Atal Pension Yojana have immensely benefitted the people of the country added. She said, “For the first time in history of the country at just one rupee premium a month, 13.25 crore people are now ensured under the Suraksha Bima Yojana.
As many as 5.52 lakh families now have the assistance of Jivan Jyoti Yojana at the premium of Rs 330 per year. For the unorganized sector workers, Prime Minister started the Atal Pension Yojana and today there is one crore subscribers. Senior citizens under PM Vaya Vandana Yojana are given 8 per cent interest for ten years where investment level has been doubled to Rs 15 lakh till 2020”.
The minister also said that when the government is looking at banking the unbanked it has also realized that one of the biggest savings in the exchequer is through Direct Benefit Transfer, ensuring money in the account removing middleman. “We have close to 431 schemes under the Government of India where money is now transferred directly to the bank account of citizens”, she added that and as a result of this initiative the Government has managed to save over Rs 80,000 crore leakages which were earlier enjoyed by the middlemen.
Speaking of sanitation, the minister said sanitation is one of the greatest challenges in the country. But because of the efforts of the Prime Minister, she said, now the country can say with pride that in 17 States and Union Territories 3.6 lakh villages have now been declared Open Defecation Free and 7.25 crore toilets have been build so far in the country. She also said, “When the Prime Minister in 2014 received the historic mandate, sanitation coverage in the country was only 38 percent and in 2018, the sanitation coverage has gone up to 83 per cent”.
Speaking of food security and security for those farmers, the minister said that it has always been the priority of the Government and that it has been able to ensure food security to 80 crore citizen covering all the States and Union Territories.
The minister said the aim of the Prime Minister is to double the income of the farmers. “We ensure that under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, we mitigate the risk that the farmers take at an affordable cost. Today we can say that apart from the Insurance coverage, the total farm credit per farmers has been raised to 11 lakh crores”. To help farmers get the right price, the minister said that the government has set up e-trading platform, 585 regulated markets to fetch best prices for farmers. “Due to support given to the farmers, we have seen record procurement and hike in Minimum Support Price (MSP)”, she added
For sectors like aquaculture, fishery, animal husbandry, she informed the press that the Government has a special corpus of Rs 10,000 crore. She took special mention of the bamboo farmers in Northeast and that Rs 1290 crore has been allocated for the National Bamboo Mission which will enable smaller industries to set up their businesses. The Government also promulgated the Indian Forest Amendment Ordinance to exempt bamboo grown in non-forest areas from the definition of tree to help entrepreneurs.
The minister while referring to Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana said that the scheme has been able to bring massive transformation in the lives of millions of youth and that through this scheme the Government has been encouraging entrepreneurship. A citizen under the Mudra Yojana can avail loan from Rs 50, 000 to Rs 10 lakh for self employment, she added. “Under this, we have seen close to over 4 lakh crore given out. As a woman I am proud that 70 per cent of the beneficiaries are women. It is has been exponentially increasing the capacities of female entrepreneur in the country”.
The minister, while speaking of government’s efforts to secure women against violence, said that for the first time in the history of the country the government has brought ordinance on death penalty for rapist for a rape of girl child under 12 years.
The minister said that the Prime Minister has given special focus for the development of the North East. The Prime Minister heads the NITI Aayog and a NITI Forum for the North East has been specially been set up so that overall developmental activities of the region can be discussed, strategies are formed and implemented, she added. She also said that development of Infrastructure has been given top priority in the North East and the Dhola-Sadia Bridge is one such example. This thrust of the NE is reflective of the PM believe that sun development of new India will rise from NE.
Earlier in the morning the minister held an informal freewheeling interaction with RJs of local FM radio stations from Meghalaya. The minister was eager to learn from the RJs about the views of the youngsters regarding the activities of the government. The RJs also expressed their views as to how the benefits of the schemes of the government can reach to the last mile person. The minister also interacted with the editors of the media houses of Meghalaya to learn from them the various issues confronting the state and how the pace of development can be increased in the region due with interventions from the Central Government.
Later in the afternoon the minister also attended the 7th Convocation of National Institute for Fashion Technology which was held at NEHU, Shillong. Congratulating the students of NIFT, the minister, said that the value of fashion industry is huge in today’s world. The value of Indian Fashion industry in 2016 was Rs 20, 000 crore and that of the individual economic growth of Indian designers was Rs 1000 crore. Praising the performance of the students of NIFT in this field, the minister said that the efficiency of this institution can be imagined by the fact that 80 per cent of designers in India pass out of NIFT.
The minister was categorical when she said that time has come to stand out as different from others. She said, “So today we have a whole generation of new designers with best wishes and a grand future. But what are the key ingredients in your success, what is the one thing that will differentiate you from others, that is absolute and absolute competence.
Hone that skill as competence is very rare.” She also advocated competence comes when one work on his/her skills everyday, when one is committed to his/her skills everyday and competence comes when one is honest with himself/herself everyday. She ended her speech with an appeal to the students that future is wide open so contribute to make a new world for yourself and a new India for your country men and women so that when your parents look at you they recognize that they have not only invested upon the you but also on the future of India.
