–
You are aware that these days the global economy is passing through a
difficult phase. We cannot do much about the conditions that prevail
outside our country. But we must make every effort to resolve the
problems inside our country so that our economic growth and the creation
of employment opportunities in the country are again speeded up.
– If we do not increase the pace of the country’s economic growth, take steps to encourage new investment
in the economy, improve the management of Government finances and work
for the livelihood security of the common man and energy security of the
country, then it most certainly affects our national security.
–
I believe that this period of difficulties will not last long. Even as
we face these problems, we should be encouraged by the fact that we have
achieved extraordinary successes in many areas in the last 8 years. We
now need to replicate these successes in newer areas.
–
Today, one out of every 5 households in the country has become eligible
to benefit from the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Act through a job
card. In only the last one year we have provided employment to more than
8 crore people under this scheme.
–
When the UPA Government came to power in 2004, we had promised that we
would provide electricity to all villages. To fulfill this promise, we
launched the Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification Scheme. More than 1 lakh new villages
have been provided with electricity connections under this scheme and
now almost all the villages in the country have been electrified. Our
next target is to provide electricity to each and every household in our
country in the next 5 years and to also improve the supply of
electricity.
– Today almost all children in the age group 6-14 years are being admitted to schools. More than 51,000 new schools
have been opened in the country and about 7 lakh teachers appointed in
them in just the last 2 years. Now we will focus on improving the
quality of education. In the next few months we will put in place a
system of continuous assessment of the benefit our children are getting
from teaching. Participation of the community and parents would be
ensured so that they can be satisfied with the quality of teaching.
–
The National Skill Development Council has formulated a major scheme
for skill development in which 8 crore people will be trained in the
next 5 years. This is an ambitious scheme which can be implemented only
through a specialized agency of the Central Government. Therefore, we
are considering the establishment of a National Skill Development
Authority so that skill development programmes all over the country can
be implemented in a coordinated manner.
– Recently we have taken new measures
to accelerate infrastructure development. Ambitious targets have been
fixed in roads, airports, railways, electricity generation and coal
production. The Government will take steps to increase investment for
infrastructure development with the help of the private sector. To
attract foreign capital, we will have to create confidence at the
international level that there are no barriers to investment in India.
–
Just 10 years back only 3 out of every 10 households in our villages
were benefitting from banking services. Today more than half of the
rural households get the benefit of bank accounts. It will be our
endeavour to ensure that all households benefit from bank accounts in
the next 2 years.
–
We want to create a system in which money from Government schemes –
pension for old people, scholarship for students and wages for labourers
– can be credited directly into people’s bank accounts. This would
reduce inconvenience to the beneficiaries, make it easy for them to
receive payment and increase transparency. For this work, we will take
help from the Aadhar scheme under which about 20 crore people have been
registered so far.
–
To provide housing for our poor brothers and sisters residing in urban
areas of our country we will soon launch the Rajiv Housing Loan Scheme.
Under this scheme, people belonging to the economically weaker sections
would be given relief on interest for housing loans of less than Rs. 5
lakh.
–The
incidents of violence which occurred in Assam recently are very
unfortunate. I know that these incidents have resulted in the disruption
of the lives of a large number of people. We fully sympathize with
those families which have been affected by the violence. We are doing
everything possible to provide relief to them. I also promise to you
that our Government will make every effort to understand the reasons
behind the violence and work hard with the State Governments to ensure
that such incidents are not repeated in any part of the country.
–I
would like to congratulate our scientists and technologists who have
enhanced our prestige by successfully testing the Agni V Missile and
launching the RISAT- I Satellite in space this year. Recently the
Cabinet has approved the Mars Orbiter Mission. Under this Mission, our
spaceship will go near Mars and collect important scientific
information. This spaceship to Mars will be a huge step for us in the
area of science and technology.
–Our
Government has set up a committee to examine issues relating to pay and
pension of armed forces personnel. This committee will also look into
matters concerning pension of retired men and officers and family
pension being paid to their families. We will take prompt action on the
recommendations of the committee, once they are received.
–Our
commitment to make the work of the Government and administration
transparent and accountable stands. On the last Independence Day, I
promised you that we would take many steps for this purpose. I am happy
to state that during the last 1 year we have achieved good progress in
this area. The Lok Sabha has cleared the Lokpal and Lokayukta Bill. We
hope that all political parties will help us in passing this Bill in the
Rajya Sabha. A number of other Bills have also been presented before
the Parliament. The Cabinet has cleared a Public Procurement Bill.
Source : PIB
