Story of Ram not possible without welfare of poor: PM after disbursing Rs 540 crore to vulnerable tribals for pucca houses

“On one hand, Diwali is being celebrated in Ayodhya, and on the other hand one lakh people from the extremely backward tribal community are also celebrating Diwali,” the Prime Minister said, as he mentioned the transfer of funds into the bank accounts of the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) for the construction of pucca houses.

Modi said the story of Ram (Ram Katha) is not possible without the welfare of the poor.

“Treta mein Raja Ram ki katha ho ya aaj ki Ram katha, bina gareeb, bina vanchit, bina vanavasi bhai-bahano ke kalyaan ke sambhav hi nahin hai. (Be it the story of Raja Ram in Treta Yug or the story of Ram today, it is not possible without the welfare of the poor, the deprived, and the forest-dwelling brothers and sisters), Modi said.

“We are continuously working with this thought. We dedicated 10 years to the poor. In 10 years, we have built four crore permanent houses for the poor,” he said.

“Jinko kabhi kisi ne pucha nahin, unko Modi aaj poochta bhi hai, poojta bhi hai (Modi worships and reaches out to those who were never cared for),” he said.

Speaking on PM-JANMAN, Modi said that in two months, 80,000 Ayushman Bharat cards have been distributed, roughly 30,000 farmers from extremely backward tribal communities have been linked to the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, and bank accounts of 40,000 such beneficiaries have been opened.

The Prime Minister said that more than 30,000 underprivileged people have been given Kisan Credit Cards, and about 11,000 have been given land leases under the Forest Rights Act during the PM-JANMAN campaign.

“I assure you this and this is Modi’s guarantee. And you know that Modi’s guarantee means the guarantee of fulfilment,” he said.

Modi said the government plans to spend more than Rs 23,000 crore on the PM-JANMAN campaign.

On providing pucca houses to the PVTGs, the Prime Minister said that money has been transferred directly to the accounts of the tribal beneficiaries. They will get up to Rs 2.5 lakh for a pucca house, which will be a source of dignified living with electricity, gas connection, pipe water, and toilet, he said.

Speaking about his government’s initiatives for tribal development, Modi said the government has increased the budget for schemes related to Scheduled Tribes by five times.

Modi said, “Till 10 years ago, only 90 Eklavya Model Schools were built for tribal children in the country, whereas the present government has started work on building more than 500 new Eklavya Model Schools in the last 10 years.”

The Prime Minister also highlighted that before 2014, Minimum Support Price (MSP) was fixed only for about 10 forest produce, whereas the present government has brought about 90 forest produce under the ambit of MSP. “To get higher prices for forest produce, we created Van Dhan Yojana,” Modi said.

He also mentioned the development of 10 large-sized museums across the country dedicated to tribal freedom fighters.

The government launched PM-JANMAN for the socio-economic welfare of PVTGs on November 15, 2023, on the occasion of Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas.

“PM-JANMAN, with a budget of approximately Rs 24,000 crores focuses on 11 critical interventions through nine ministries and is aimed to improve socio-economic conditions of the PVTGs by saturating PVTG households and habitations with basic facilities such as safe housing, clean drinking water and sanitation, improved access to education, health and nutrition, electricity, road and telecom connectivity, and sustainable livelihood opportunities,” read a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office.