Union Minister Sanjeev Balyan on Monday said scams and bomb blasts dominated the news during the UPA rule from 2009-14 pushing the country into a state of despair, but all that changed with Narendra Modi taking over as the Prime Minister.
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He said the Modi government began working from day one on the principle of "nation first" with a focus on development and bringing about a qualitative change in the lives of people.
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"Between 2009, when UPA has voted to power once again at the Centre, and 2014, the front page of newspapers carried news of one scam or the other almost every day," Balyan said.
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?"When they (newspapers) were done with reporting scams, they reported bomb blasts in Mumbai or Hyderabad, or some trouble in Jammu and Kashmir. People had begun to despair about the country's future. However, all that changed when Narendra Modi became Prime Minister," he said.
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The Union Minister of State for Animal Husbandry, Dairying, and Fisheries was speaking at a programme titled "Media se Samvad" organised by the BJP to highlight the achievements of the nine years of the central government.
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Balyan said Modi's coming to power was a paradigm shift as India, which took on an average of 15-20 years in developing a vaccine, developed two indigenous vaccines within months during the COVID-19 pandemic and exported them to more than 150 countries, besides administering 220 crore vaccines for free to its people.
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On the occasion, Balyan gave a PowerPoint presentation to highlight the Modi government's achievements during the past nine years, including the allocation of pucca houses to 3.5 crore families, construction of 11.72 crores 'shauchalayas' (toilets), piped water to 12 crore households, free LPG connection to 9.6 crore households and free ration to 80 crore people during the pandemic.
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The Ayushman health insurance scheme and the expanding network of national highways across the country were also highlighted by the Union minister.
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Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said the projects sanctioned for Uttarakhand during the past nine years reflect the prime minister's deep sense of attachment to the hill state.
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"Unprecedented amount of work has been done. Big projects have been undertaken in the field of road, rail, and air connectivity," Dhami said and thanked the prime minister on behalf of the people of the state for starting a 'Vande Bharat' express train between Dehradun and Delhi.
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He also spoke of the nine major projects announced for Uttarakhand by Modi, out of which several have started already while others will start soon.
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Dhami said the Rs 1,300-crore Kedarnath-Badrinath reconstruction projects will be completed by December this year.
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He also mentioned the Rs 2,500-crore ropeway projects for Kedarnath and Hemkund Sahib, the Manaskhand Mandir Mala Project for developing ancient temples of the Kumaon region as a religious circuit, and efforts underway to give a push to the homestay scheme.
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Development of 16 eco-tourism destinations in Uttarakhand, expansion of health facilities, the Tehri lake development, development of Rishikesh and Haridwar as centres for adventure tourism and yoga, and the Tanakpur-Bageshwar rail line also found mention in Dhami's address at the event.