Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ridiculed opposition charge of joblessness in the country and said the argument was not acceptable as banks and other agencies have provided loans to about four crore first time businessmen and entrepreneurs.
“Is it possible, four crore people have been given loans and there were no jobs…,” he said speaking at an event organised by News18 media group on Monday evening.
He said EPFO figures also counter the narrative about joblessness in last few years and said between September 2017 and November 2018, more than five lakh people have joined the EPFO system.
“These figures do not come out of some rough surveys….hard statistics reveal these figures especially when money is deducted from the employees contributions,” Prime Minister said.
He said if any one wanted to indulge in scams now, they cannot do so as his government has blocked all means of “looting” public money.
He said there were nearly 8 crore “fake beneficiaries” who were getting the government aid and facilities during earlier regimes.
“I found it surprising that the Congress would oppose Aadhaar but the reasons are now clear,” he said and maintained enforcement of Aadhaar and opening of Jan Dhan account have ensured that the benefits of over 400 schemes are now directly doing into genuine account holders.
Citing schemes like Jan Dhan Yojana and Aadhaar linking, he said since 2014, more than Rs 1,10,000 crore of exchequer’s funds have been saved from going to “fake beneficiaries”.
He also said, “NDA’s priorities are people centric. Which is why, what must rise, like GDP growth & Ease of Doing Business have risen in our tenure and what should fall, like corruption & prices are falling”.
In contrast, during UPA regime, the GDP growth rate was falling, business was tough, prices and corruption were high, Mr Modi said.
“Is it possible, four crore people have been given loans and there were no jobs,” asks PM
