Gadkari Flags Rising Poverty in India

The statement given by Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari regarding poverty in the country has raised questions on the claims of the Modi government. Gadkari said in a program organized in Nagpur that poverty is increasing in the country and all the money is reaching only a few rich people. Nitin Gadkari said that in view of increasing poverty, there is a need for decentralization of money so that not only economic development takes place, but also the welfare of the villagers is done.

Let us tell you that BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself claim in many of their speeches that 25 crore people have been lifted out of poverty in the country, but now, contrary to their claims, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has expressed concern about the increasing poverty.

During this time, the Union Minister has talked about issues like agriculture, manufacturing, taxation and public-private partnership in infrastructure. The senior minister of the Modi government said that the economy has to be developed in a way that creates jobs and encourages rural areas.

Gadkari said that gradually the number of poor people is increasing and wealth is getting concentrated in the hands of a few rich people. This should not happen. The economy should be developed in a way that creates jobs and leads to the welfare of rural areas.

On the other hand, Nitin Gadkari praised the liberal economic policies of former Prime Ministers PV Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh, but warned against uncontrolled centralization. He said that we have to be worried about this. He said that referring to India's economic structure, Gadkari underlined the imbalance in the contribution of different sectors to the GDP. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said that the contribution of the manufacturing sector is 22-24 percent, the service sector is 52-54 percent, while the contribution of the agriculture sector, which depends on 65-70 percent of the rural population, is only around 12 percent. During his address, he quoted Swami Vivekananda and said that philosophy cannot be taught to someone whose stomach is empty.

The senior BJP leader stressed the role of Chartered Accountants (CAs) and said, 'CAs can become the engine of economic growth. Our economy is changing rapidly. It is not limited to filing income tax returns and GST.' Mentioning his initiatives in the transport sector, Gadkari said, 'I started the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) system for road construction. He said that there is no shortage of money for road development. 'Sometimes I say that I do not have a shortage of money, but there is a shortage of work.