Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to make 140 crore people, including the poor, in the country "atmanirbhar" (self-reliant) and has worked with dedication for it.
PM Modi wants to make India self-reliant in space technology and defence, and also aims to make the poor people self-reliant, Shah said addressing a gathering here of beneficiaries of the PM SVANidhi scheme, which helps street vendors get easy loans.
The Union minister said poor people have benefited the most under the Modi government.
Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel was also present at the function to give loans to beneficiaries of the Prime Minister Street Vendor's AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM-SVANidhi scheme).
Shah said Prime Minister Modi has given a call to make India "atmanirbhar" and wants to make the country self-reliant in space technology, defence, all kinds of businesses and other fields.
"PM Modi wants to make 140 crore people including all the poor people atmanirbhar. Besides space technology, research and development among other things, the prime minister has worked with complete dedication to improve the standard of life of 60 crore poor people," Shah said.
"In the last nine years, around three crore people got their own homes, four crore people got electricity connections, 10 crore people got gas cylinders, 12 crore people got toilets, 80 crore people got free ration and 60 crore people have been covered under the Rs 5 lakh health insurance (scheme)," he said.
Various schemes are being implemented to bring the poor people out of poverty, Shah said.
"In my constituency (Gandhinagar in Gujarat), over 1.5 lakh people have availed the benefit of PM-SVANidhi scheme, under which financial assistance is given to those who are running small businesses and hand carts without any collateral," he said.
"In Gandhinagar constituency, there is 90 per cent saturation of various pro-poor schemes," he added.
Chief Minister Patel said as a result of schemes launched by PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, the poor people in the country are now living a self-reliant life.
Shah is on a day's visit to his constituency where he is scheduled to attend various programmes.
