PM’s address at the laying of foundation stone of various projects in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh
Speaker: Narendra Modi
Date: 05 Oct, 2023

Bharat Mata Ki Jai! Bharat Mata Ki Jai! Governor of Madhya Pradesh Shri Mangu Bhai Patel, Chief Minister Bhai Shivraj Singh Chouhan, all my cabinet colleagues, Ministers from the MP Government, MPs, MLAs, all other dignitaries present on the stage and ladies and gentlemen who have come in such large numbers to bless us! Paying my obeisance to this sacred land of Mother Narmada, I am witnessing a new face of Jabalpur today. I can see that there is enthusiasm in Jabalpur; there is joy and excitement in ‘Mahakaushal’. This zeal, this enthusiasm reflects everything that is there in the mind of Mahakaushal. Amidst this vigour, today the whole country is celebrating the 500th birth anniversary of the brave queen Durgawati ji. On the concluding occasion of Rani Durgawati Gaurav Yatra, I had called for celebrating her birth anniversary at the national level. Today we all have gathered here for this very purpose, to perform a sacred task, to repay the debt of our ancestors. Just a short while ago, we performed the Bhoomi Pujan of the grand memorial of Rani Durgawati ji here, and I was just wondering how it is going to be built. Shivraj ji was showing me the complete map of it in detail. I firmly believe that after this is built, every mother and every youth of Bharat will feel like visiting this land. In a way, it will become a pilgrimage destination. The life of Rani Durgawati teaches us the lesson of welfare of all; gives us courage to do something for our motherland. I congratulate the entire tribal society, Madhya Pradesh and 140 crore countrymen on the birth anniversary of Rani Durgawati. If any country in the world had someone like Rani Durgawati as its leader, that country would have been promoting it all over the world. After independence, this should have happened in our country too but our great personalities were forgotten. These brilliant, ascetic, epitomes of sacrifice and perseverance, such great personalities, such brave men and women, were forgotten. My family members, Today, the foundation stone of development projects worth more than Rs 12 thousand crores has been laid and inaugurated here. Be it water and gas pipeline or a network of 4 lane roads, these are the projects that are transforming the lives of lakhs of people. The farmers here will definitely benefit from this; new factories and plants will be set up here and our youth will also get employment opportunities here. My family members, One of the top priorities of the BJP government is to provide smoke-free kitchens to our sisters. Some people have done research and said that when a mother cooks food and has a smoky stove, burns wood or burns coal, her body gets exposed to the smoke equivalent to 400 cigarettes every 24 hours. Should my mothers and sisters get rid of this trouble or not? Please respond with all your strength; it is about mothers and sisters. Should my mothers and sisters be free from smoke in the kitchen or not? Couldn’t Congress have done this work earlier? They didn’t. They didn’t care about the mothers and sisters, or about their health and well-being. Brothers and sisters, That’s why we launched a massive campaign and gave free Ujjwala gas connections to crores of sisters from poor families. Otherwise, if they had to get a gas connection earlier, they had to visit the MP’s house. And you know that on the festival of Rakshabandhan, a brother gives something to his sister. So, on the festival of Rakshabandhan, our government had made gas cylinders cheaper for all the sisters. On that occasion, the cylinder was made cheaper by Rs 400 for the beneficiary sisters of Ujjwala. And after a few days, the festivals of Durga Puja, Navratri, Dussehra, Diwali are going to begin. So, this Modi government once again made Ujjwala cylinders cheaper by Rs 100 yesterday itself. This means that in the last few weeks alone, the cylinder has become cheaper by Rs 500 for the beneficiary sisters of Ujjwala. Now my poor mothers, sisters and daughters who are beneficiaries of Ujjwala will get gas cylinders for only Rs 600. The BJP government is also working at a rapid pace to ensure that cheap gas is supplied to the kitchens through pipes instead of cylinders. That is why gas pipelines are also being laid here. Lakhs of families of Madhya Pradesh will also benefit from this initiative. My family members, Today, I would like to remind the students studying in our colleges, our young friends, our young sons and daughters of some old incidents. Should I remind them? Should I remind them of certain incidents of 2014? You see, those who are 20-22 years old today might not even know because at that time they would have been probably 8,10, or 12 years old. They would not have known what the situation was like before the Modi government. At that time, scams worth thousands of crores of rupees of the Congress government used to make headlines every day. The money which was supposed to be spent on the poor was going into the coffers of Congress leaders. And I would say to these youngsters that they are the online generation. So just go to Google and search. Just read the newspaper headlines of 2013-14. What was the condition of the country? And so, brothers and sisters, After 2014, when you gave us an opportunity to serve, we started a campaign to change the corrupt systems created by the Congress government and started a cleanliness campaign on the corruption front also. We have used technology to remove around 11 crore fake names. Will you remember this figure? Could you respond? Will you remember this figure? We removed 11 crore fake names from government records. How many? How many did I say? Speak loudly.11 crores! What were these 11 crore names? These were the names of the people who were never born! But a way had been created to loot the treasury from the government offices. Congress created documents for these false names, fake names. This figure of 11 crore is even greater than the total population of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The treasury was looted snatching away the rights of the real beneficiaries, the poor people using these 11 crore fake names. After coming to power in 2014, Modi has cleaned out everything. The reason why these people are angry is that their cut, their commission has been stopped. Modi came and cleared out everything. Neither will I allow the money of the poor to be looted nor will I let the coffers of the Congress leaders to be filled. We created such a trinity of Jan Dhan-Aadhaar and mobile that the corruption system of Congress was destroyed. Today, because of this tri-shakti, more than Rs 2.5 lakh crore has been saved from getting stolen. I will ask you this figure again. So, Modi has done the work of saving more than Rs 2.5 lakh crore which were going into wrong hands and were getting stolen. How much did I say? 2.5 lakh crores! Today the money of the poor is being used for the welfare of the poor. Today the Central Government is spending crores of rupees to provide Ujjwala cylinders for just Rs 600. Rs 3 lakh crore is being spent on providing free ration to crores of families. These 3 lakh crore rupees are given from the treasury so that any child of my poor mother does not go to bed hungry at night. The cooking at the house of the poor doesn’t stop. Under the Ayushman scheme, about 5 crore families of the country have received free treatment. For this, the government has spent Rs 70 thousand crores for your Ayushman card. Farmers should get affordable urea. In the world market, a bag of urea is sold for Rs 3000, but Modi gives it for less than Rs 300 and that is why the central government has spent Rs 8 lakh crore from the treasury so that my farmers are not burdened. Under PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, Rs 2.5 lakh crore has been deposited directly into the bank accounts of farmers. Our government has also spent Rs 4 lakh crore to provide pucca houses to the poor families. Even today you have seen that I have provided 1000 multi-storeyed pucca houses built with modern technology to poor families in Indore. My family members, If you add all the funds, what will be the figure? How many zeros will need to be added? You can imagine! These people from Congress cannot even calculate it. And listen, before 2014, these zeroes were used only to calculate the money from scams. Now imagine, a Prime Minister of Congress used to say that if you send one rupee from Delhi, only 15 paise reached the actual beneficiary and 85 paise is stolen by someone in the middle. They would send one rupee and only 15 paise would reach the beneficiary. You can imagine how big a theft it would have been if the money that we just calculated was being sent during the Congress era. Today the BJP government is giving so much money for the welfare of the poor. My family members, This is a very important period for my Madhya Pradesh. Standing on the banks of Mother Narmada today, I am saying this; I am saying this to the entire Madhya Pradesh; I am saying this to the youth of the Madhya Pradesh; I am saying this in the presence of Mother Narmada because I too was born in the lap of Mother Narmada. I am saying this today standing on the banks of Mother Narmada. My youngsters, mark my words. Madhya Pradesh is today at such a juncture where any hindrance in development, any slow-down in the pace of its development will destroy everything. This kind of development will not return even after 20-25 years. And therefore, this pace of development should not be allowed to stop, or get stalled. These 25 years are very important for you. Friends from MP who are under 25 years of age have only seen the new and progressing Madhya Pradesh. Now it is their responsibility to ensure that in the coming 25 years, when their children grow up, they should have a developed Madhya Pradesh, a prosperous Madhya Pradesh, a Madhya Pradesh full of pride and honour. This requires more hard work today. For this, right decision is needed today. In the past years, the BJP government has taken MP to the top in terms of agricultural exports. Now it is important that our MP should become number one in industrial development also. Bharat’s defence production and defence exports have increased manifold over the years. Jabalpur also has a major contribution to the same. In Madhya Pradesh, there are 4 factories manufacturing defence related goods in Jabalpur alone. Today the central government is providing ‘Made in India’ weapons to its army. The demand for Bharat’s defence goods is increasing in the world. Madhya Pradesh is also going to benefit greatly from this. Thousands of new employment opportunities are going to be created here. My family members, Today Bharat’s confidence is at a new height. From the playground to the fields, the flag of Bharat is waving high. You must have seen that the Asian Games are currently going on, in which we are watching Bharat’s brilliant performance. Today every youth of the country feels that this is the period for Bharat’s youth. This period is the period of Bharat’s youth. When the youngsters get such opportunities, their passion for building a developed Bharat also increases. That is why Bharat is able to organize grand world events like G20 with so much pride. That is why Bharat’s Chandrayaan reaches a spot where no other country could reach. That is why the mantra of being vocal for local starts resonating far and wide. You can imagine, on one hand this country sent Chandrayaan while on the other hand, on Gandhi Jayanti, on 2nd October, a Khadi store in Delhi sold products worth more than Rs 1.5 crore in just one day. This is the strength of the country. This spirit of Swadeshi, this spirit of taking the country forward is growing everywhere today. And the youth of my country, the sons and daughters of my country have taken the reins in this endeavour. That is why the youth of Bharat are doing wonders in the world of start-ups. That is why Bharat takes such a powerful pledge to become clean. In the cleanliness campaign that was launched in the country on October 1st, cleanliness programmes were conducted at more than 9 lakh places! More than 9 crore people of the country took part in that cleanliness campaign. They came out of their homes, took brooms and cleaned the roads and parks in the country. The people of Madhya Pradesh and the youth of Madhya Pradesh have done even more wonders. Madhya Pradesh has scored the highest in terms of cleanliness. Madhya Pradesh remains number one in the country. We have to take this spirit forward. And in the coming 5 years, we must keep MP at number one in as many areas as possible. My family members, When a political party is engrossed in its own interests, then we can easily guess it. Today the whole world is talking about Bharat’s achievements. But these very political parties, who have lost everything, and can’t see anything apart from power have now gone to such an extent that while abusing the BJP, they have started abusing Bharat itself. Today the whole world is praising the Digital India campaign. But you may remember, how these people mock us every day for Digital India. Bharat made the world’s most effective vaccine against Corona. These people also raised questions on our vaccines. And just now someone was telling me that a new film has been made based on vaccine called the ‘Vaccine War’ and such a film has been made in our country which will open the eyes of the people around the world. The film ‘Vaccine War’ has been made on the amazing work done by the scientists of our country and how it saved the lives of crores of people of the country. Brothers and sisters, These people also question everything that the Indian Army talks about, and question the bravery of the Indian Army. They find the words of the country’s enemies and the terrorists to be true. They don’t trust the words of my country’s army and soldiers. You have also seen that on completion of 75 years of independence the entire country celebrated Amrit Mahotsav. This was not a programme of BJP. It was a programme of the country. Independence was a celebration for every citizen of Bharat. But these people also make fun of the ‘Azaadi Ka Amritkaal’. We are building Amrit Sarovars in every corner of the country for the coming generations and a massive campaign of water conservation is going on. But these people have aversion towards this work too. My family members, The party which ran the government in the country for so many years after independence, did not show any respect even to the tribal society. From the freedom struggle to the richness of cultural heritage, the role of our tribal society has been immense. Gond society is one of the largest tribal societies in the world. In such a scenario, I want to ask you a question. Why did those who were in power for a long time not give national recognition to the contribution of the tribal society? Why did the country have to wait for BJP for this? Our young tribals must know this. Even before they were born, Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government had created a separate ministry for the tribal society and had assigned a separate budget. In the last 9 years, Modi’s government has increased this budget manifold. BJP also got the privilege of giving the country its first female tribal President. The BJP government also declared the birth anniversary of Bhagwan Birsa Munda as Tribal Pride Day. One of the most modern railway stations in the country was named after Rani Kamlapati. Patalpani station is now known as Jannayak Tantya Bhil. And today such a grand and a modern memorial is being constructed here after the name of Rani Durgawati ji, the inspiration of the Gond community. This museum will also showcase Gond culture, Gond history and art. Our effort is to ensure that the coming generations can learn about the rich Gond tradition. When I meet world leaders, I gift them Gond paintings. When they praise this magnificent Gond art, my heart fills with immense pride. Friends, The party which was in power in the country for decades after independence, did only one thing, and that is worshipping one family. Besides worshipping one family, they did not care about the country. It was not just one family that brought independence to the country. The development of the country has not been achieved by just one family. This is our government, which showed respect to everyone, and took care of everyone. This BJP government has made the places associated with Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar across the world, including Mhow, to be ‘Panchteerth’. A few weeks ago, I also got the opportunity to perform the Bhoomi Pujan of the memorial site of Sant Ravidas ji in Sagar. This shows the commitment of the BJP government towards social harmony and heritage. Friends, The parties that nurture nepotism and corruption have looted the resources of the tribal society. Before 2014, MSP was given only for 8-10 forest produces. Some people bought the remaining forest produce at the lowest prices and the tribals did not get anything. We changed this scenario and today about 90 forest produces have been brought under the ambit of MSP. Friends, In the past, even coarse grains like Kodo Kutki, produced by our tribal farmers and our small farmers, were not given much importance. You have seen that big leaders from all over the world had come to Delhi for the G20 Summit. Several leaders had come. We also fed them dishes made from your Kodo Kutki. The BJP government also wants to deliver your Kodo Kutki to the markets of the country and abroad in the form of ‘Shri Anna’. Our endeavour is to provide maximum benefits to tribal farmers and small farmers. My family members, The priority of BJP’s double engine government is giving importance to the underprivileged. Supplying potable drinking water through pipes is very important for the health of the poor and for the convenience of women. Even today, systems have been developed to supply water to about 1600 villages here. Women’s health should always be the priority of the country. But this too was continuously ignored earlier. BJP has also done the work of giving women their rights in Lok Sabha and Assembly through Narishakti Vandan Adhiniyam. Friends, Our Vishwakarma friends make huge contributions to the socio-economic life of the village. Empowering them should have been a priority. But the Rs 13 thousand crore worth PM Vishwakarma scheme was brought only after the formation of the BJP government. My family members, BJP government is the government of the poor. Some people are using all kinds of tricks to further their corruption and nepotism. But Modi’s guarantee is that MP will be among the top in terms of development. I am confident that Mahakaushal, and Madhya Pradesh will strengthen this resolve of Modi’s BJP government. Once again, I pay my respects to the brave queen Durgawati ji. And you have come in such large numbers to bless us, I express my heartfelt gratitude to you. I will say Rani Durgawati, and you will say Amar Rahe, Amar Rahe! Rani Durgawati – Amar Rahe, Amar Rahe. The voice should echo throughout Madhya Pradesh. Rani Durgawati – Amar Rahe, Amar Rahe. Rani Durgawati – Amar Rahe, Amar Rahe. Rani Durgawati – Amar Rahe, Amar Rahe. Bharat Mata Ki Jai! Bharat Mata Ki Jai! Thank you very much.