My dear brothers and sisters, today the entire world is celebrating the festival of Christmas. Jesus Christ’s message of love and compassion is the best path for the welfare of mankind. Many congratulations to the world for this holy festival of Christmas. Today is also the birthday of the two gems of India. One Bharat Ratna is Mahamana Madan Mohan Malviya Ji and the other Bharat Ratna is Shriman Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ji.
Just a while ago our Chief Minister was saying that when a prime minister goes to any state, that state feels very happy, that state feels very good, but I have not come to visit any state, I have come to my own state. Uttar Pradesh has raised me by adopting me; it has educated me and shaped me for my new responsibilities. This is the same Uttar Pradesh where Banaras made me an MP for the first time, this is the same Uttar Pradesh, 22 crore people of which, played a big role in giving a stable government to the country.
Brothers and sisters, today I got the privilege of traveling in Metro from Botanical Garden and today's age is such that without connectivity life comes to a standstill. Without connectivity the entire environment seems to be scattered. If we see this Metro, its significance cannot be limited to just that now we have got the Metro, it costs crores of rupees and it has to be implemented with great care but it is going to benefit many future generations of ordinary citizens. These facilities have far-reaching impacts. As a resident of Noida, as a resident of Uttar Pradesh and as a citizen of the country, these arrangements, in a sense, are really beneficial for all the people.
Sometimes, there is not a single subject in our country which is not painted by the brush of politics and therefore sometimes the best things of development are evaluated on the scales of benefits to a political party rather than evaluating them on the scale of public interest. Even today, we import a large amount of petroleum products in the country. It is our endeavor that in 2022, when India will be completing 75 years of its independence; the petroleum products that we import from abroad; on the other hand the requirements of our country is increasing steadily; this requirement is going to increase further in 2022, we want to take several such steps that in spite of this increasing requirement, can we reduce some percentage of what we are importing today? Can we keep our country’s money in our country? And hence Mass Transportation, Rapid Transportation, Multi Modal Transportation, they are the need of the hour. Today, there might be some problem in spending the money; priorities have to be changed slightly. But because of this, it is going to benefit a lot of people in the near future. Solar energy has also been associated with this Metro. Around 2 MW electricity will be generated using solar power which will help in reducing the expenses of this Metro. Because of this Metro, people who travel by private vehicles will now obviously prefer Metro so there will be considerable saving of money that was spent by them on petroleum products. It will also benefit our environment. And I want that travelling in Metro should become a matter of prestige in our country. Every person must say, no, I won’t use my vehicle, I will prefer going by Metro. We will have to bring this change in our mentality which will enable us to save our country from many problems. It is a matter of great pride for us that on 24 December 2002 Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the first Metro passenger of the country. It has now been 15 years after that event. It started at that time and now it has spread to a network of more than 100 kms and in the coming days it is going to increase further and that day is not far away when our network will be listed among the top five networks of the world, which will become a matter of great pride for our countrymen.
Today, we celebrate the birth anniversary of Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the Good Governance Day also. Sometimes in our country we assume that things will remain as they have been, no one is going to bring any change. Sometimes we say that we are a very poor country, what can we do, we don’t have anything. This is not true my friends, this country is wealthy and prosperous but the people of the country have been kept away from that wealth and prosperity. So if we observe closely then only one thing comes to mind that there is one important reason behind the root cause of the problems and that is the lack of good governance, absence of good governance. It happens, it is okay, mine, yours, things get entangled in that and it has become a habit. You go for any work and people will look at you and ask, what’s in it for me? Do they ask it or not? Is this the practice or not, and if the response from person in the front is insipid, if he says that there is nothing in it for you than the other person will say, what I have to do with this, it’s your work you should know. This situation has ruined our country and I have taken the initiative to change it.
I know how difficult it is to do these things, I know it very well. But you must tell me, should the decisions be taken only when there are political gains and if no political advantage is there then we should not make any decisions. Should the country be left hanging in balance like this? And therefore brothers and sisters, the country has elected a government which wants to work according to policies, which wants to work with clear intentions and which is working with the dreams of changing the lives of common man. All our decisions are going to bring about change in the lives of common man.
This Metro is being inaugurated today, crores of rupees have been spent on it. I do not believe that any of the top 10 industrialists in India will come here to travel by it. You are the people who will travel in this. People have come here with great pride to travel in it and I have also come here for you people.
You must have seen that the progress of those states is better where there is a thrust on good governance, there is an effort for good governance. And wherever reforms in the governance starts, it improves governance system, the government becomes accountable, employees become responsible, the whole system and administration becomes responsible, then we witness an automatic reduction in problems. During his regime Atal Bihari Vajpayee emphasized on good governance, he stressed on connectivity for the country. Meet any MLA or MP of the country, today one thing is definitely requested and that is request for Prime Minister Rural Road Scheme.
In this country, there has been a great effort to forget those things, after all who dreamt of taking roads to each and every village, very few people know that this was the dream of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. If anyone started the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna, it was Atal Bihari Vajpayee and because of that every village in India is now being connected with a paved road, and since the time we came into power, we have taken the initiative that by 2019 every village will be connected with a paved road, and we will complete the work started by Vajpayee Ji.
Golden Quadrilateral, the task of connecting whole India. There was a time when the task of making roads in India was associated with Sher Shah Suri. After that the task of connecting India by making a golden quadrilateral was imagined only by Vajpayee Ji and he gave a lot of impetus to it during his tenure. Looking at this new connectivity of roads, this new road design, now the whole country believes that we are now coming at par with the world. This dream of Metro, of whom the first passenger was Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Today metro work is going on in many cities. Very soon there will be metro network in 50 cities and the world is also surprised that the work on metro is being done at such a scale in any country and investors in the world are taking keen interest in this.
We have abolished approximately 1200 laws. When I was fighting elections then I had said it in one of my speeches that governments of earlier period used to boast that we have made this law, we have made that law. It is a good thing, making law is a privileged responsibility of the parliament and they should be made as per the need of the hour. But during the election campaign I had said that I want to abolish one law every day. This web of laws is the biggest hurdle in the path of good governance. If you want to do some work then you can find three laws regarding that. If the officer wants to do the job then he will use one law, if he wants to delay it he will use another law and if he wants to just reduce it to dust then there is the third law. Common man faces a lot of problems because of this and therefore this government has abolished approximately 1200 laws till now.
This issue of good governance, I remember very well that when I had just become the Prime Minister, special news articles were published in the newspapers, special reports in box were published, and what was that about? After Modi became Prime Minister, people have started to reach office on time. Now tell me, is this a good news or it is a news which makes you sad. Many people were happy that after Modi came to power people have started to come on time but I felt very sad, what is the status of my country, if an officer reaches office on time then also the country starts to rejoice. This is a live example of what kind of sad times they have witnessed.
Today I want to heartily congratulate our energetic Chief Minister Shri Adityanath Yogi Ji. He is taking Uttar Pradesh ahead in a very good way, he is moving ahead on the path of development in all directions. He is emphasizing on good governance. But looking at his clothes, people were spreading this false image that he cannot have modern approach in life. He would be superstitious in nature, bound by old beliefs, but I am happy that today, the same Noida for which an image was created that no chief minister can visit this place, without saying anything, by his conduct alone Yogi Ji has proved that this impression was untenable, that those beliefs were wrong. Modern age could not be like this and hence once again I heartily congratulate Yogi Ji.
If Chief Ministers live by the fear that visiting some place will take their position then such persons do not have any right to become a Chief Minister. Any society imprisoned in superstitions cannot progress. We are living in the era of technology, we are living in the era of science. Devotion has its own place but there can be no place for blind faith. When I became Chief Minister in Gujarat, now it is not that this trouble is present only in Uttar Pradesh. There are many states in India, there are many such places where whatever kind of superstitions and beliefs are prevalent. You must have seen that a Chief Minister bought a car, and I am talking about this modern age, and somebody told him something about the color of the car so he put lemons, green-chilies and what not in the car, what inspiration will such people give to the nation? Those who live by such blind faith are very harmful to the public life. There are many governments and Chief Ministers in the entire India who are trapped in such beliefs and assumptions.
When I became the Chief Minister of Gujarat then six or seven places were brought to my attention which I could not visit. If someone goes there then he no longer remains a chief minister, he loses his position. So I took the initiative and I asked to finish the visit of all such places in the first year itself. I visited all such places in Gujarat where, because of such superstitions, no chief minister had gone in that direction in the last three or four decades and I visited every such place with prominence, and even after that I got the opportunity to serve as the Chief Minister for the longest tenure. Now what was the fault of that village, that tehsil or that city? But today, Yogi ji, on his own has removed this stain from Noida. You deserve a lot of congratulations.
Brothers and sisters, good governance and birthday of Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ji, when I talk about good governance, I want to put some facts in front of you. You see, if a new urea factory is started then the production of urea will increase, any little kid would know that. But without starting any new urea factory in the country, immediately after the formation of our government, good Governance was emphasized, necessary policies were laid, roadmap was created and implemented. Even without starting a single urea factory, nearly two million tons more urea was produced. Same factories, same machines, same raw material, same labor, after the change of emphasis was placed on good governance. Without commissioning of any new factory, from the same old system, an increase of production of urea by 18-20 lakh tons, it happens because of good governance.
Brothers and sisters, the number of employees engaged in laying of railway tracks is the same, roads and paths are same, railway department is the same, decision takers are the same, the way files are moved is also the same, despite that what is the reason that the length of track what was laid earlier in one day, and after the formation of our government, that length has more than doubled. Reason: clear policy and clear intentions and emphasis on good governance, it is the result of that only. Similarly the work of double lining, where there is an existing line, what is the reason that in comparison to earlier governments this work of converting the single line tracks into double line tracks has been done at twice the speed after we formed the government. The reason is good governance.
Brother and sisters, construction of roads and highways, earlier the kind of work on constructing the national highways was done in a day, it’s not like that suddenly the government has not become rich, but putting every penny to the best possible use, every machinery is being utilized effectively, time is utilized efficiently. It is the result of the principles of good governance that the work of constructing the national highways has been doubled in comparison with the work done during the work done during the previous government. The reason is good governance.
Brothers and Sisters, today our country is in the era of global trade. Today our seas and ports are important. We had negative cargo handling. There was no growth and whatever was there, we were even going back on that. The world has not changed after we came into the power; we have changed, the government has changed, intentions have changed, more emphasis is now being given on good governance. And the same cargo handling which had negative growth earlier, today it has grown by 11 percent because we have brought good governance.
Brothers and Sisters, Renewable Energy, Solar Energy, Wind Energy, Hydro Power Project, Nuclear Power Project, the way we are working today in all these areas, we have doubled the capacity of Renewable Energy compared to earlier. Brothers and sisters, this has happened because of good governance only.
During the previous government if someone went to market to buy an LED bulb, which consumes less electricity, you would be surprised to know that three and a half years back, before I came to power, that LED bulb was sold at Rs. 350, today it sells at 40-50 rupees. 28 crore LED bulbs have been given to Indian households, more than 14 thousand crore rupees have been saved, in those houses where LED bulbs have been installed. Some of them saved 200, some of them saved 500, some people saved 1000 rupees and some others saved 2000 rupees. Not only this but almost 6,000 crore rupees of middle class families have been saved due to reduction in prices of LED bulbs. This is a live example of how things change when there is good governance.
Brothers and sisters, if there is good governance then schedules are set in the prescribed time frame. The country is governed on the basis of policy; it is not governed on anyone's whims. The policy is in black & white due to which there is no discrimination. And when there is no chance of discrimination, then the chances of corruption are also greatly reduced.
Brothers and sisters, by taking inspiration from the austerity of Atal Bihari Vajpayee's life and through good governance in our country we are trying to take the country to newer heights. Together with everyone, development for everyone, we are moving ahead with this formula. And when we talk about development then it should be all inclusive, it should touch all, it should be comprehensive; development with all, development for all, it should be linked with the formula of involvement of all, it should be done while keeping the future in the mind. And therefore we are moving ahead with development led good governance. And the way Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ji did the work of connecting every corner of the country, the way he worked on the connectivity, worked on construction of roads, therefore if I have to explain the good governance of Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ji in one sentence then I will say, Lord of Indian Roads. The work of taking the world of roads to new heights and connecting the people was done by Vajpayee Ji. Today, on his birthday, on the holy festival of Christmas, on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Mahamana Ji, I feel very proud to publicly dedicate this metro to the country which connects Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. Once again I express my gratitude to the Uttar Pradesh Government for inviting me to this program. I express my gratitude to the people of Uttar Pradesh, I express gratitude to the people of Noida.
Many-many thanks.
