PM Modi ensured welfare benefits for poor: Yogi

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had "emptied the pockets" of those who siphoned off public money and ensured that welfare benefits reached the poor directly through bank accounts.

Yogi said Modi would complete 25 years in public service as Gujarat chief minister and Prime Minister on October 7, describing the journey as one of service "without stopping, bowing or wavering". He said Modi assumed charge as Gujarat chief minister in 2001 when the state was recovering from a devastating earthquake and later faced the challenge of communal riots.

Targeting the Congress-led UPA government, Yogi said the period between 2004 and 2014 was marked by corruption, "anarchy and inaction", resulting in a loss of public confidence. Since 2014, he said, government schemes focused on all sections without discrimination based on caste, religion, region or language.

He cited housing, toilets, LPG connections, health insurance and free foodgrains among the benefits reaching the poor and said infrastructure such as highways, expressways, railways, metros and airports had expanded. "Today, no person in the country has to sleep hungry," he said, referring to the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana.

The chief minister also said India now had more than 2.5 lakh startups and that young people were increasingly becoming job creators rather than job seekers.

The theatrical presentation, organised by the culture department and Bharatendu Natya Academy, depicted Modi's public-service journey from the 2001 Gujarat earthquake and reconstruction of Kachchh. Yogi directed that the production be staged across Uttar Pradesh with local languages and folk songs incorporated according to different regions.