Indicating that the BJP has begun its campaign for the 2019 general elections, party President Amit Shah on Tuesday claimed that its leaders had visited 16,850 villages across the country to ensure that people have access to the seven welfare programmes of the Narendra Modi government.

The BJP leaders interacted with more than 20.53 lakh families during the outreach programme, said Shah.

Talking to reporters, Shah said between 14 April and 5 May, representatives of the Centre and BJP, as part of the Gram Swaraj Abhiyan, covered 16,850 villages in 484 districts. He said the effort was to ensure that people get the benefit of seven flagship programmes of the Centre such as the Ujjwala, Sowbhagya, Ujala, Jan Dhan, Jeevan Jyoti, Suraksha Bima and Indra Dhanush schemes.

“All people in those 16,850 villages were given the benefits of these programmes of the Centre. All these villages have got power electricity connection. All houses have gas cylinders now,” Shah claimed.

He said no government in independent India’s history had attempted to free these villages from their problems. All MPs, MLAs, district panchayat members and other local body representatives of the party participated in the programmes, and spent two nights in villages, Shah said.

By August 15, the BJP will reach out to more villages, he said. “We have selected 45,000 villages in 115 districts in the backward regions. Our effort will be to ensure 100 per cent coverage of all these seven programmes in these villages,” he said.

When asked about the rising prices of petroleum products, he said the Centre has taken the matter seriously. “Petroleum Minister will have a meeting with the officials of the oil companies tomorrow (Wednesday). We are working out a formula to reduce the prices,” he claimed.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW