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Modi ministers in five years – Jagat Prakash Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare

Keshav
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Modi ministers in five years – Jagat Prakash Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare

In the series on the performance of various ministers in the Modi government, today we take a look at the health ministry.

Health is probably the biggest concern which anyone has today. Be it families or the government, everyone strives for personal health, and government works towards a healthy society because without having a healthy population, a nation can’t succeed. Modi government has probably done the biggest health intervention in India since independence, by launching Ayushman Bharat, which takes healthcare to the poorest of the poor, and taking the worries of medical bills of their head. Modi government has launched many such initiatives to ensure healthy India, which we would look at however, a little bit about JP Nadda, the man overseeing Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Jagat Prakash Nadda is from the state of Himachal Pradesh, though he was born and brought up in Patna, and studied there up to his graduation, where his father was a professor, and later became VC of Patna University. He was also active in ABVP in his student days. He shifted his base to Himachal Pradesh which was his home state, to pursue his LLB from Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla where he continued his association with ABVP, and subsequently with BJYM. He was first elected to Himachal Pradesh Assembly in 1993, and reelected in 1998. He was group leader of BJP in his first term as MLA. He was again elected as MLA in 2007 assembly elections. He however shifted his base to New Delhi in national politics in 2010, and was elected as Rajyasabha MP in 2012. He was inducted as Minister for Health and Family Welfare, in the first reshuffle of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet. Let’s have a look at his tenure as Minister for Health and Family Welfare.

Ayushman Bharat – Ayushman Bharat is one the world’s largest public health initiative taken by the Modi government, to take care of the medical expenses of the poor in the country. Under this scheme, every family identified as poor in 2011 census (approximately 50 crore people) are eligible to get free treatment in all the government, and most private empanelled hospitals up to Rs 5 lakh, every year. This scheme isn’t a dole, where the government is spending from its own coffers, but the government has paid the insurance premium, for such poor families under which they are given medical insurance of Rs 5 lakh every year.

The cost of the premium is shared by the central and respective state governments, in the ratio of 60:40. However some opposition-ruled states like Delhi and West Bengal have not joined the scheme, and deprived poor’s of their state the benefit just because the scheme is named as Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna – Ayushman Bharat, and they feel Prime Minister Modi will get all the credit for the scheme.

It is pity on the parts of these states, to deprive poor benefits of such a good scheme, just because it has been initiated by the political leader, whom they oppose. According to recent numbers, this scheme has benefitted nearly 7 lakh beneficiaries in first 100 days of the launch of the scheme.

Bill Gates, one of the world’s richest man and philanthropist congratulated Modi government by tweeting about it.


AIIMS in every state – BJP had promised in its election manifesto to build an AIIMS in every state of India, so poor of these states aren’t deprived of availing world-class health facilities at cheaper rates and also helping decongestion of Delhi AIIMS. This decision was a continuation of the initiative taken by Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, which had set up 6 AIIMS at Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Jodhpur, Patna, Raipur and Rishikesh. These AIIMS had started functioning from 2012. Accordingly, the Narendra Modi government has decided to set up AIIMS in a phased manner in all the states. 13 more AIIMS have been approved by Modi government till now which include Raibareli and Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, Vijaypur and Awantipora in Jammu and Kashmir, Kalyani in West Bengal, Bhatinda in Punjab, Changsari in Assam, Bilaspur in Himachal Pradesh, Madurai in Tamilnadu, Darbhanga in Bihar, Deoghar in Jharkhand, Rajkot in Gujarat and Hyderabad in Telangana. Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir have got two AIIMS because of the bigger geographical area of the states. AIIMS at Nagpur (Maharashtra) and Managalagiri (Andhra Pradesh) have started functioning out of temporary campuses in 2018.

Map of AIIMS in India

The total number of proposed and functioning AIIMS as of now stands at 24. After all the AIIMS are established, the number of AIIMS in the country will go up to 32. Establishment of AIIMS will serve the people in every nook and corner of India, as they won’t have to travel far for quality treatment. It would also increase medical seat intake in the country, and produce quality doctors. Starting new AIIMS is a part of Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana, which also envisages upgradation of existing Government Medical Colleges (GMCs), to further strengthen medical facilities. Accordingly, 73 GMCs are being upgraded under this scheme.

Mission Indradhanush – Mission Indradhanush was launched in December 2014. It aims to immunize all children under the age of 2 years, as well as all pregnant women, against seven vaccine-preventable diseases. The diseases being targeted are diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, poliomyelitis, tuberculosis, measles and Hepatitis B. In addition to these, vaccines for Japanese encephalitis and Haemophilus influenza type B are also being provided in selected states. In 2016, four new additions have been made namely Rubella, Japanese Encephalitis, Injectable Polio Vaccine Bivalent and Rotavirus. In 2017, Pneumonia was added to the Mission by incorporating the Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine under the Universal Immunization Program.

Immunization Program in India was introduced in 1978 as ‘Expanded Program of Immunization’ (EPI) by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. In 1985, the program was modified as ‘Universal Immunization Program’ (UIP) to be implemented in a phased manner to cover all districts in the country by 1989-90 with the one of the largest health program in the world. Despite being operational for many years, UIP was able to fully immunize only 65% children in the first year of their life. To strengthen and re-energize the program and achieve full immunization coverage for all children and pregnant women at a rapid pace, the Modi Government launched “Mission Indradhanush” in December 2014. The ultimate goal of Mission Indradhanush is to ensure full immunization with all available vaccines for children up to two years of age and pregnant women.

The Government has identified 201 high focus districts across 28 states, in the country that have the highest number of partially immunized and unimmunized children. Earlier the increase in full immunization coverage was 1% per year, which has increased to 6.7% per year through the first two phases of Mission Indradhanush. Four phases of Mission Indradhanush have been conducted till August 2017, and more than 2.53 crore children and 68 lakh pregnant women have been vaccinated.

E Raktkosh – Blood availability for patients is a major issue in the country. While needy patients don’t get blood on time due to various reasons including running around for blood in absence of clear information on blood availability, while lakhs of blood bags are wasted every year in the country as they get expired. To overcome this problem government has launched a web and app-based portal called www.eraktkosh.in, which shows the live status of blood availability across all blood banks of the country. One can simply login on the portal or app, and see the availability status of needed blood group or blood components saving precious time in running around looking for the blood in critical times.

Pradhanmantri National Dialysis Program – Kidney diseases are increasing in day by day in the country. Kidney failure results in need of dialysis for the patients. This treatment is quite costly, costing on an average of Rs 2000 per session which results in huge (approximately Rs 4 lakh per year expenditure for patients. Identifying the need, government has started free dialysis program for the patients in PPP mode, where provision of dialysis is available at around 500 district hospitals in the country. Till March 2018, about 2 lakh patients availed treatment under this scheme.

Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan (PMSMA) – PMSMA was launched in November 2016 to provide assured, comprehensive and quality antenatal care, free of cost, universally to all pregnant women on the 9th of every month. PMSMA guarantees a minimum package of antenatal care services, to women in their 2nd and 3rd trimesters of pregnancy at designated government health facilities. Under this scheme, more than 1.16 crore antenatal check-ups have been conducted at over 12,900 health facilities across all states and union territories. More than 6 lakh high-risk pregnancies were identified and were provided all possible care.

Primary Health Centres (PHCs) to be transformed into Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs) – Government has announced to transform over 5 lakh health sub centres into Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs). These HWCs will provide comprehensive primary health care package which includes in addition to primary health care, geriatric health care, palliative care and rehabilitative care services.

Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 – Modi government promulgated this act which adopts a rights-based statutory framework for mental health in India, and strengthens equality and equity, in provision of mental healthcare services, to protect the rights of people with mental health problem, to ensure that they are able to receive optimum care, and are able to live a life of dignity and respect.

Overall this government has taken a leap forward, in the goal of having a healthy country. However, one can only pity Rahul Gandhi, when he says, we will scrap Ayushman Bharat if voted to power. Rahul Gandhi should answer, if he wants to scrap Aysuhman Bharat, what better alternative he has to treat poor people of India, and if he has any alternative, he should present it to the nation. If he doesn’t have then he should say it on record that, by scrapping Ayushman Bharat, he would leave poor people to die in absence of medical treatment or let them crowd in a very few government hospitals, this country has.

 

The author is journalism pass out from Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi. After dangerously flirting with the idea of left during his IIMC days, due to the proximity of the IIMC with JNU, a den of radical leftists, he became firmly aligned to right after realizing the futility of the left. He tweets at @kpophale.

Priyanka Gandhi’s Modi-Amitabh Bachchan jibe is a massive self goal, read why

OpIndia Staff
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Priyanka Gandhi’s Modi-Amitabh Bachchan jibe is a massive self goal, read why

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s political campaigning in UP has seen many interesting moments. Not only her statements of Congress being the ‘vote cutter’ party in UP have caused severe embarrassment for her party, her photo ops and empty road shows also have been a stark reminder of Congress’ slipping political hold over Uttar Pradesh.

In an attempt to mock PM Modi, Priyanka ended up scoring a massive self-goal today. Addressing a rally in Mirzapur, Priyanka stated that the people have elected the world’s biggest actor as their PM. She added that it would have been better if they had elected Amitabh Bachchan himself because neither of them (Bachchan or Modi) were ever going to work for the people.


However, Priyanka’s statement was a massive self-goal. Amitabh Bachchan was indeed elected an MP by the people of Uttar Pradesh once, in 1984. Ironically, it was Priyanka Gandhi’s family party Congress that had given him the ticket. Some Twitter users pointed out the fact to Priyanka.


Priyanka Gandhi trying to drag Amitabh Bachchan’s name into her political jibes is a rather amusing prospect also for the fact that Amitabh Bachchan had resigned as a Lok Sabha MP after just three years amidst the Bofors scam controversy, where Rajiv Gandhi’s government was accused of involvement. The names of Amitabh and his brother Ajitabh had surfaced too in the scam. However, Bachchan was later given a clean chit by Swedish Police chief Sten Lindstrom, who had led the investigations in Sweden.

Amitabh Bachchan had joined politics on Rajiv Gandhi’s request as they were close childhood friends. The Bachchan family had been very close to the Gandhis and back in those days, they were very open about the familial ties too.

In fact, it was Bachchan’s parents who had helped Rajiv in organising his wedding with Sonia. Amitabh’s mother Teji Bachchan and Rajiv’s mother Indira Gandhi were said to be close friends too.

Amitabh and his family were also among the special guests of the then PM Rajiv Gandhi when he had taken the now famous vacation at an uninhabited island in the Lakshadweep archipelago in 1987-88. The family of Amitabh’s brother Ajitabh was invited there too.

In her attempt to mock PM Modi, Priyanka has not only dragged the name of one of India’s greatest living actors, she has declared one of her family’s oldest acquaintances and her own father’s childhood friend, who was also a Congress MP once, as ‘incompetent’.

AltNews fact-checks BJP’s claims about violence at Vidyasagar College, spreads fake news instead

OpIndia Staff
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AltNews fact-checks BJP’s claims about violence at Vidyasagar College, spreads fake news instead

Kolkata was abuzz on Tuesday after violence was reported at BJP President Amit Shah’s rally. In the clashes that ensued, a statue of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was vandalized at Vidyasagar college. As the issue gathered traction, political blame-game ensued over the matter.

While Mamata Banerjee invoked Bengali regional chauvinism, Shah in his press conference presented evidence to accuse Trinamool of violence and vandalizing the statue. AltNews claimed to do a fact-check in the matter.

In their fact-check, they initially claimed that a video showed only BJP karyakartas throwing stones at those inside the college campus, contrary to the claims made by the party that the first assault came from Trinamool. AltNews claimed that the video showed no stones being thrown from inside the college.

However, as pointed out by Fact Hunt, a fact-checking website, in reality, there are videos available which do show stones being thrown from the inside. But AltNews conveniently ignored it.


Since then, AltNews has been forced to eat their words and they have updated their article on the matter and have admitted that there was indeed stone pelting from the inside. However, they still call it ‘retaliation’, thus, giving the impression that those were the BJP Karyakartas who pelted the stones first. They say so without any shred of evidence whatsoever.

Moreover, AltNews throughout its fact-check has built up the narrative that BJP Karyakartas were responsible for vandalizing the statue. However, all of it is mere conjecture and one ought to ask oneself, since when is conjecture considered a fact-check? AltNews says, “That the TMC vandalised Vidyasagar’s statue is a claim not backed by any visual evidence.” However, people wearing saffron appears to be sufficient condition for AltNews to brand them BJP Karyakartas. It appears it hasn’t crossed their mind that TMC cadres could very well dress up in saffron to fool people.

Anyway, since when do ‘fact-checkers’ take up the responsibility of investigative agencies and the Police? Whether people associated with the TMC vandalized the statue or it was done by BJP Karyakartas, it’s for the Police to find out. It’s not the job of fact-checkers. It appears the people at AltNews have been watching too much of CID and have been deeply inspired by ACP Pradyuman and his motley crew.

AltNews co-founders are known to harbour great hatred towards Prime Minister Modi and often peddle Fake News, as they did on this occasion, to further their personal agenda. Recently, Pratik Sinha, one of the co-founders, had lied about Narendra Modi’s poll promise of sending guilty MPs and MLAs to jail.

The media portal is a habitual offender. AltNews sought to ‘fact-check’ a ‘clipped’ video of journalist Barkha Dutt but interestingly, left out the quotes where she was actually giving a context to the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits in the valley. Altnews ‘fact-checked’ a retired major from the Army, but willy-nilly refused to respond to his side of the story. Altnews fact-checked a fake image in circulation without bothering to name the ones using that fake image. The reason was rather simple. The ones sharing that image were their ideological comrades which included Swati Chaturvedi, a source BBC has relied upon. One of their co-founders happily furthers genocidal accounts wishing for death upon anyone who doesn’t subscribe to the leftist cult. The co-founder of Altnews spread lies about ease of doing business rankings. He shared a fake image of BJP leader BS Yeddyurappa right before the Karnataka elections.

Godse row: BJP issues clarification, disciplinary committee to seek explanation for controversial statements

OpIndia Staff
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Godse row: BJP issues clarification, disciplinary committee to seek explanation for controversial statements

Facing severe flak for the controversial remarks made by its leaders, the BJP president Amit Shah came out in defence of his party claiming that the tendentious remarks made by its leaders were their personal opinions and they do not reflect party’s stand on the matter.


The BJP president has also said that the concerned leaders have taken their statements back and apologized for the same. Shah further added that the party has taken their remarks seriously and has sent them to the disciplinary committee to seek an explanation from Ananthkumar Hegde, Sadhvi Pragya, and Nalin Kateel for their controversial remarks. The committee will submit the report to the party within 10 days.

Earlier, the BJP candidate from Bhopal constituency, Sadhvi Pragya stirred a furore by calling Nathuram Godse a ‘Deshbhakt’(Nationalist). Sadhvi Pragya was responding to a question related to actor Kamal Hassan who had claimed Nathuram Godse was the first Hindu terrorist since India’s independence. The statement from Sadhvi Pragya evoked objection from several quarters.

BJP leader Ananthkumar Hegde jumped in the brewing controversy tweeting that Godse would have been happy at the debate going on in the country with the changing perceptional environment that allows condemned to be heard upon. However, he soon deleted the tweet claiming that his Twitter account had been hacked twice in this week.

BJP MP from Karnataka Nalin Kateel equated Nathuram Godse with erstwhile Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who PM Modi said died as ‘Brashtachari Number 1‘. Kateel tweeted that Godse killed 1 while Rajiv Gandhi killed 17000. Kateel’s reference was about the Sikh Genocide which was allegedly presided over by Rajiv Gandhi in which around 3000 perished and in Bhopal Gas Tragedy in which around 15000 were killed, whose culprit Warren Anderson flew out of Bhopal on the official plane of Arjun Singh, allegedly on the directions of Rajiv Gandhi. The tweet has been deleted now.

“If they arrest me, tensions will escalate,” Kamal Haasan stands by his Godse remarks, says not afraid of being arrested

OpIndia Staff
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“If they arrest me, tensions will escalate,” Kamal Haasan stands by his Godse remarks, says not afraid of being arrested

Amidst the controversy over Kamal Haasan’s remarks on Godse, the Makkal Needhi Maiam chief said on Thursday that he stands by his comments and isn’t afraid of being arrested. He claimed that his statements have been blown out of proportion.

A massive controversy broke out after Kamal Haasan at an election rally said that independent India’s first terrorist was a Hindu and it was Nathuram Godse.

Following which an FIR had been filed against him under Sections 153A and 295A of the Indian Penal Code, for ‘outraging religious feelings’ and ‘promoting enmity between different groups’.

“I don’t fear arrest but I have got campaigning to do. Let them arrest.. but if they arrest me tensions will escalate. This is not my request but an advice,” he said.

The BJP has also filed a complaint with the Election commission stating that the statement was intended to outrage religious feelings of millions of Hindus and that the speech has also breached the Model Code of Conduct as no one can appeal to caste or communal feelings to secure votes.

Justifying his remarks on Godse he told reporters, “Let me tell you terrorists abound all religions…every religion has its own terrorists and we cannot claim that we are sanctimonious and we have not done that. History shows you that all religions have their extremists.” He claimed that his remarks on Godse were meant to maintain communal harmony.

Meanwhile, Haasan was attacked while he was in Karur to deliver a speech. Allegedly two men had hurled eggs and stones at home while he was getting down the stage. Following which the MNM members caught hold of the two accused and started beating them. The police intervened and took them to custody.

Reacting to the incident Kamal Haasan said, “I feel the quality of polity is going down. I don’t feel threatened.”

This is not the first time that Haasan has landed himself in a controversy. Earlier, we had reported how the actor-turned-politician had been called out on social media for his controversial comment demanding a plebiscite in Kashmir. He had referred to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir as ‘Azad Kashmir’ but was forced to make a U-turn after his comments were called out on social media.

Congress’ U-turn: A day after saying they’re okay with Rahul Gandhi not being the PM, Congress says ‘we want to’

OpIndia Staff
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Congress’ U-turn: A day after saying they’re okay with Rahul Gandhi not being the PM, Congress says ‘we want to’

A day after almost conceding defeat, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad made a U-turn on Friday as he said that it wasn’t true that Congress would not claim or was not interested in the Prime Minister post.


The Congress bigwig, unlike yesterday, when he dropped subtle hints to his party allies that they would be okay if Rahul Gandhi will not be offered the PM’s post, today in a massive turnaround, said that if we have to run the govt for five years biggest political party should be given a chance.

While interacting with media in Bihar yesterday, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad sent out feelers to the opposition parties, which have refused to include Congress into the mahagathbandhan that if the consensus is made in Congress’ favour that their candidate should become the PM, then the party will take leadership. But if they are not offered the PM post, then they will not make an issue out of it and throw a tantrum that they will not let anyone else become the PM. Azad said that the main aim of the Congress and the Opposition is to defeat the NDA government.

Nevertheless, such retractions are something which is not new to the grand old party. Though, Rahul Gandhi has on several occasion expressed his keen willingness and offered himself, with extreme conviction, as the next Prime Ministerial candidate, at the time when Congress had actually decided that Rahul Gandhi would be Prime Ministerial candidate for the Congress in the 2019 elections, Rahul had himself flip-flopped saying he was ‘open to options’.

When asked whether he would back TMC’s Mamata Banerjee, who is not very approving of projecting Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Ministerial candidate, or BSP’s Mayawati, who currently has zero MPs in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi reportedly said he would support any candidate who is able to defeat the BJP and the RSS.

Moreover, last year, the grand old party had stated that the Congress was not even considering Rahul Gandhi as the PM face for Congress’ in the 2019 elections.

The bigwigs of the Congress party understand that losing the coalition partners of the crucial states will not only crumble the opposition unity but also cost Congress the numbers which, considering they didn’t even cross 50 in 2014. They also understand that the opposition coalition will not be possible with Rahul Gandhi as a PM candidate as many amongst the allies, like TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, Samajwadi party president Akhilesh Yadav, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, BSP leader Mayawati, have already expressed their reservations about making Rahul Gandhi the PM candidate.

In such a case, in order to keep the party’s position intact, it is only just that the party bigwigs are waving around their confused state of mind regarding Rahul’s Prime Ministerial candidature.

‘Request you to rename Khan Market as Valmiki Market,’ Man writes to Rajnath Singh

OpIndia Staff
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‘Request you to rename Khan Market as Valmiki Market,’ Man writes to Rajnath Singh

A certain Deepak Tanwar, in a letter to Home Minister Rajnath Singh, has requested that the name of Khan Market be changed. The alternative he has proposed is Valmiki Market. Interestingly enough, Tanwar has no association with the market. He is neither a shop owner nor a resident in the area.

As per reports, Tanwar said that he got the idea to get Khan Market’s name changed from Modi’s interview where he mentioned ‘Khan Market gang‘, the elites in media circle who believe they have built Modi’s image. “I want the name to be changed because lord Valmiki is a part of our rich history. When such a big market will get Valmiki ji’s name, every tourist coming will get to know about our mythological past,” he added.

In a recent interview, taking a dig at Rahul Gandhi, had said, “(Modi’s image, whether good or bad, has not been made by the Khan Market gang or the Lutyens Delhi. It has been built by hard work of over 45years.) You cannot dismantle it.” He had stated further, “Every pollster, media, Lutyens Club, the Khan Market gang, was eager to defeat us and predictions were being made that we will wind up with about 40 seats in all three states.”

The media, then, had even proceeded to provoke the traders against the Prime Minister but were left bitterly disappointed when the traders replied that Narendra Modi was not referring to them.

Jyotiraditya Scindia beats Rahul Gandhi, goes off on a foreign vacation in the middle of campaigning

OpIndia Staff
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Jyotiraditya Scindia beats Rahul Gandhi, goes off on a foreign vacation in the middle of campaigning

An indication that the Congress party has abandoned all hope can be seen in the mannerisms of its General Secretary in Uttar Pradesh and senior leader from Madhya Pradesh, Jyotiraditya Scindia. As per reports, he has taken off on a vacation to the US, even as 8 Lok Sabha constituencies are yet to go to polls in Madhya Pradesh.

The last phase of the 2019 General Elections are only 2 days away. The mood in the ruling and the opposition camps could not have been more different at this point. While the BJP has been asserting confidently on a consistent basis that they will secure more seats than in 2014, the Congress party has conceded that it has no problem if Rahul Gandhi does not become the Prime Minister.

The fate of 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh and 8 in Madhya Pradesh will be decided on the 19th of May. Under such circumstances, Scindia’s absence could only be explained by the assumptions that either the Congress has given up already or he has not forgiven the party high command for denying him the post of Chief Minister in MP.

Normally, such conduct is usually expected from Rahul Gandhi who is still in India. However, the Congress President has used such tactics only to recover from the stress of election campaigns after results have been declared. It appears Jyotiraditya Scindia has gone two steps further.

Modi ministers in five years – Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship

Keshav
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Modi ministers in five years – Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship

Over past few articles, we saw the works done by the Prime Minister, the ‘Big 4’ ministers, infrastructure ministries like Road Transport and Railways. In this article, we would review the works done on the energy front. Without energy security, no country can progress, and Dharmendra Pradhan, the minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, who is also the minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, has done a splendid job in taking energy security to the lowest strata of the Indian population. However, before we go deeper into the achievements of Dharmendra Pradhan, a brief about the man himself.

Dharmendra Pradhan also started as student activist in ABVP, like many others in the BJP in 1983. Rising through the ranks, he became national secretary of ABVP in 1995. Thereafter he was first elected to Odisha Legislative Assembly in the year 2000. He was first elected to Lok Sabha in 2004 representing Deogarh in parliament. Meanwhile he was also given various organizational responsibilities in the BJP, and served as national president of BJYM between 2004 – 2006. Thereafter he was appointed as national secretary of BJP in 2007. In 2010, he was appointed as general secretary of BJP. He was first elected to Rajya Sabha in 2012 from Bihar, and was reelected to Rajya Sabha in 2018 from Madhya Pradesh. In 2014, he was first inducted as minister of state (independent charge) of Petroleum and Natural Gas in the Narendra Modi’s council of ministers. Later in 2017, he was elevated as cabinet minister with the same portfolio and was also given charge of ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, a new ministry created by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a subject very close to Prime Minister’s heart. Dharmendra Pradhan is M.A (Anthropology) by qualification.

Let’s have a look at his achievements.

Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas

Ujjwala Yojana – Ujjwala Yojana is a path-breaking initiative launched by Narendra Modi government to provide free LPG connections to all poor, to give them access to clean energy and saving the hassles of cooking on hazardous kerosene or firewood stoves. Due to Ujjwala Yojana, LPG coverage in India has gone up from 55% in 2014 to 90% in 2018. As of now, the government has released over 7 crore connections to poor households out of targeted 8 crore. Interim finance minister Piyush Goyal, in his last budget speech said that government is confident of meeting its entire target by next year, meaning by 2020, every household in India will have access to clean energy for cooking. Majority of the beneficiaries of this scheme are SC/ST, minority women, which aren’t traditionally considered as BJPs voters. However Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government staying true to its slogan of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, has cared for every section of the society as demonstrated by schemes like Ujjwala, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and Saubhgya Yojana.

If we consider an average family size of 5, over 30 crore people are direct beneficiaries of Ujjwala Scheme alone. Having access to clean fuel has saved at least 7 crore women from respiratory diseases. World Health Organisation (WHO) has also praised Ujjwala scheme in its pollution report. Such is the benefit of Ujjwala that, India would soon become a kerosene free country. According to the interim budget, 12 states and union territories have already surrendered their kerosene allocations under PDS. Such is the impact of this scheme that, this writer wanted kerosene for pest control treatment in the house. Even after going to around 10 shops, not a single drop of kerosene was available anywhere. Imagine government withdrawn kerosene from the market without giving an alternative and furore it would have caused?

PAHAL – Direct Benefit Transfer to LPG customers – Government launched PAHAL scheme in November 2014, to directly transfer subsidy benefit to the bank accounts of LPG customers which resulted in increased transparency. Though the LPG subsidy scheme was first launched by UPA government in September 2013, it had teething problems which were sorted by Modi government while re-launching the scheme in November next year. PAHAL was recognized as the world’s largest cash benefit transfer scheme by the Guinness Book of World Records. According to the government figures, till September 2018, around 25 crore LPG consumers had joined PAHAL Scheme. Rs 84,316 crore have been directly transferred to bank accounts by the government resulting in estimated savings of Rs. 41,952 crore. All Ujjwala beneficiaries are also directly linked to PAHAL from beginning itself.

Give it up – Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally appealed to well off consumers to give up LPG subsidy. Due to his charismatic personality, and connect with the people, Modi’s appeal worked and more than 1 crore people have already given up their LPG subsidy.

URJA Ganga project – Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched URJA Ganga project in October 2016. This scheme envisaged the laying of gas pipeline from Jagdishpur – Haldia and Bokaro –Dhamra to fulfil the energy needs of eastern India. The project will not only supply CNG to automobiles and cooking gas to household kitchens in cities along the route, but also to industries to meet their feedstock or fuel requirement. The project will usher in industrial development in the eastern part of India by supplying environmentally clean natural gas to fertilizer and power plants, refineries, steel plants, and other industries. It will also provide clean energy to households, and transportation in the cities en route the pipeline. The city gas network (supply through piped gas) in Varanasi, Bhubaneswar, and Cuttack has already been started. It would also revive three closed public sector fertilizer plants at Sindri, Gorakhpur and Barauni.  Government has now decided to extend it to North East India as well.

Toilets at petrol pumps under Swachch Bharat Mission – Provisions of rulebook has been changed and not having functional toilet has now been classified as major irregularity by oil companies and penalty provisions have been suitably amended. According to the government data 55,943 petrol pumps out of total 56,760 petrol pumps have toilet facility by June 2018. Out of these 32,334 petrol pumps have separate toilet facilities for men and women. Oil companies are putting all efforts to have separate toilets for men and women at all petrol pumps.

Digital payments – Modi government has steadfastly promoted digital payments in order to make India a less cash society. Under this, now 96% petrol pumps have facility to accept payments digitally.

Promotion of biofuels – From July 2017, government has ordered compulsory blending of biodiesel with regular diesel in specified limits given by Bureau of Indian Standard. Using biofuels reduce carbon emissions and help in lowering the overall carbon footprint of the country. Biofuel is also being promoted in the aviation sector. Recently first time India, Dehradun – Delhi flight with DGCA officials onboard successfully completed its flight on biofuel. India is the first developing country to successfully have completed biofuel flight. Before India, only developed countries like Canada, Australia and the USA had flights operating on biofuel.

Deregulation of Diesel – Though UPA government had deregularised petrol prices at the fag end of its tenure, it hesitated in deregularising diesel prices, and linking it with market rates owing to elections as diesel consumption in India is more than double that of petrol, as it is used in commercial vehicles, tractors, trains etc. Modi government deregularised diesel prices, and completely removed subsidy, and prices were linked with market rates saving a huge subsidy bill for the central government and using that money for other developmental activities and infrastructure spending.

Daily updation in fuel prices – Modi government took a policy decision in July 2017, to update fuel prices daily, in line with global practices to reflect the actual oil rates, by stopping the practice of updating it once in a fortnight.  This move ensures that the smallest benefit of change in global prices is passed to the consumer immediately. It also stops huge hike or drop in prices every fortnight. The policy of updating fuel prices once in fortnight was started by Vajpayee government, which stopped arbitrary change in prices by oil companies, whenever they wanted under Congress rule,

Ministry of Skill Development – the separate ministry for skill development was created by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as there is a huge skills gap in Indian human resources.

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana  (PMKVY) – PMKVY was launched in July,  2015 with an aim to provide formal short-term skill training across the country, recognizing the skills through certification and enhancing employability opportunities among the youth. Till September 2018, nearly 25 lakh people have been trained under PMKVY. Model training centres known as Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras(PMKK) are being set up in every district across India.

National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme – This scheme was launched in August, 2016 to promote apprenticeship training with the target of 50 Lakh apprentices to be trained by 2019-20 by incentivizing employers to engage apprentices through sharing of cost of basic training and reimbursement of 25% of prescribed stipend.

Pradhan Mantri Yuva Yojana – This scheme was launched in November, 2016 to encourage entrepreneurship among youth. The scheme aims at creating a culture of entrepreneurship amongst youth by motivating, educating and equipping them with basics skills of entrepreneurship. The scheme has been launched in 2200 Institutes of Higher Learning (colleges/universities/polytechnics), 300 schools, 500 ITI’s and 50 Entrepreneurship Development Centres (EDCs). The entrepreneurship education will be provided to interested students through Facilitated Blended Model, which is a combination of e-Learning and Classroom teaching. The course curriculum is based on experiential learning and emphasizes on learning by doing. E Cell is an essential component of the scheme, which will help students develop their entrepreneurial capabilities by virtue of exposing them to real-life situations. Participating institutes and students will be provided handholding support through a network of 55 regional and nodal hubs, spread across the country.

The author is journalism pass out from Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi. After dangerously flirting with the idea of left during his IIMC days, due to the proximity of the IIMC with JNU, a den of radical leftists, he became firmly aligned to right after realizing the futility of the left. He tweets at @kpophale.

Bureaucrat turned politician Shah Faesal peddles victimhood on his birthday, Twitter gifts him a reality check

OpIndia Staff
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Bureaucrat turned politician Shah Faesal peddles victimhood on his birthday, Twitter gifts him a reality check

Former IAS officer Shah Faesal, who had called India ‘Rapistan’ and had recently launched a political party as a joint venture with JNU’s freelance protestor Shehla Rashid, attempted to play victimhood on his birthday in a strange way.

Faesal, who had announced soon after his party launch that his party will not contest the Lok Sabha elections, had informed on Twitter that it is his birthday. While most people just say that it is the birthday or post images of their birthday celebrations with loved ones, Faesal did it in a weirdly political way.

He declared that he is turning 36 but not many youths in Kashmir get that privilege, hinting that most youths in Kashmir do not reach the age of 36.

Via Twitter

However, the attempt to score political goals by playing victimhood for himself and Kashmiri youths using the birthday as an excuse did not quite work for Faesal. Twitter users soon reminded him that he is trying to peddle a false narrative and Kashmir is one of the topmost states in India in terms of life expectancy at all ages, not just 36.


Journalist Akhilesh Sharma shared a 2016 news report that had the Registrar General of India’s data on how Jammu and Kashmir had replaced Kerala as the state with the highest life expectancy at most age groups.

Faesal was also reminded that for ‘normal’ people like law-abiding citizens, Jammu and Kashmir’s life expectancy score is among India’s best.


Faesal had been in the news when he had asked for a Nobel Prize for Pakistani PM Imran Khan. He is also a great admirer of both Imran Khan and Arvind Kejriwal and had stated in the past that he gets inspired by them.

On behalf of team OpIndia, we wish Shah Faesal a very happy birthday and pray to god that he lives a long life, as most people in Jammu and Kashmir do.

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