By Sudhir Kumar
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today highlighted that good governance was the most essential condition for the success of government works and schemes meant for common man
Addressing a post Budget webinar on Reaching the Last Mile today, Mr. Modi said, the more emphasis one puts on good governance, the more easily the goal of reaching the last mile will be accomplished.
He gave the example of new approaches in the immunization and vaccine coverage in Mission Indradhanush and Covid pandemic to illustrate the power of good governance in the last mile delivery. Mr. Modi said that along with money, political will is needed for the development.
Explaining the thinking behind the policy of saturation, the Prime Minister said that the approach of reaching the last mile and saturation policy complement each other. He said, as opposed to the earlier scenario when the poor were running after the government for basic facilities, now the government is reaching the doorstep of the poor.
Mr. Modi added that the day one decides that every basic facility will be provided to every citizen in every area, then one will see what a big change will come in the work culture at the local level. He underlined that when the aim is to reach everyone, then there will be no scope for discrimination and corruption.
The Prime Minister stressed on the need to take the mantra of reaching the last mile in the tribal and rural areas in the country. He said that whole of the nation approach is needed to rapidly provide facilities under special mission for the most deprived among the tribal community.
He said the government is trying its best to tap the vast potential of the country’s tribal people and this year’s Union Budget has been devoted to tribal development. Eklavya Model Residential School is one such example.
Mr. Modi said, be it PM SVANidhi supporting the street vendors or eSanjeevani scheme reaching the milestone of ten crore teleconsultations, the center’s schemes are developed with the target to reach the last mile. He also said the Aspirational District Program has emerged as a successful model in reaching the last mile.
He also talked about the Jal Jeevan Mission Scheme in this direction saying the work has started on more than 60 thousand Amrit Sarovar, out of which 30 thousand Sarovars have already been constructed.
The Prime Minister asked the stakeholder to discuss the ways of linking housing with technology for finding ways of making strong but affordable houses, finding easy ways of benefiting from solar power and group housing models acceptable in both urban and rural areas.
He said that this year’s Budget has kept Rs 80 thousand crore for housing for the poor. He underlined the need to ensure transparency and time-bound delivery of schemes with the use of technology.
In his speech, Prime Minister Modi also said today, it is necessary to have a comprehensive discussion with all the stakeholders on the role of public welfare in the budget and discuss how we can make them transparent.