The prime minister extended wishes to people on the National Panchayati Raj Day at a public event in Rewa on the occasion of the National Panchayati Raj Day and said more than 30 lakh panchayat representatives from across the country were virtually connected to the programme.

“This is certainly a very powerful picture of India’s democracy,” he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday blamed the previous Congress governments for meting out “step-motherly” treatment to villages in the country after independence and breaking their trust. The previous governments used to avoid spending money for villages, because a village was not vote bank in itself. “That is why they were ignored,” he said.

The BJP has ended this injustice meted out to villages and opened our treasury chest for their development, he added.

Modi said in the 10 years before 2014, around 6,000 panchayat buildings were built with the help of the then central governments.

“But, our government, within eight years, has got more than 30,000 new panchayat buildings constructed,” Modi said.

Since 2014, the country has taken up the cause of empowerment of its panchayats and the results are visible today. Now, India’s panchayats are emerging as the lifeline of development of villages, the PM said.

The governments after independence destroyed the Panchayati Raj system in the country. The system which existed hundreds and thousands of years ago, the same Panchayati Raj system was not trusted after independence, he said.

Referring to the digital development of rural areas under the present regime, Modi said in this era of digital revolution, panchayats are also being made smart.

The e-GramSwaraj-GeM (government e-marketplace) integrated portal has been launched on Monday. This will make the process of procurement done through panchayats simple and transparent, he said.

“We have had a lot of confusion regarding the property papers of houses in villages. Due to this, there were various disputes and possibilities of illegal possession. Now, all these things are changing with the ‘PM SVAMITVA Yojana’,” he said.

When villages of the country are powered with (the facility of) banks, then people in rural areas are being provided help in everything from farming to business, the PM said.

“We have opened bank accounts of more than 40 crore people in villages by running the Jan Dhan Yojana. We have increased the reach of banks to villages through the India Post Payments Bank,” Modi said.

He said the previous governments had connected less than 70 gram panchayats with the optical fibre (system).

“It is our government which has taken the optical fibre to more than two lakh panchayats of the country,” he said.

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Every panchayat, every institution, every representative, every citizen of the country will have to unite for a developed India. This is possible only when the basic facilities reach 100 per cent beneficiaries expeditiously, without any discrimination, PM Modi said.

He said it is necessary to develop the economic system of villages in India. It is also necessary to strengthen the panchayat system to make the country developed, he said.

“With this thinking, our government is continuously working to strengthen the panchayat system of the country,” he said.

The PM said his radio broadcast ‘Mann Ki Baat’ is set to complete the 100th edition due to public support.

Modi said he is also eagerly waiting for the 100th episode (on April 30) and urged people to join him on the occasion.

Read more: Three Decades of Empowering of Panchayati Raj Institutions