Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Mumbai president Ashish Shelar, Union minister for communications and information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union minister for social justice and empowerment Sudarshan Bhagat and MLA Captain R. Tamil Selvan during the party workers meeting held at Vasant Smriti Bhavan, Dadar on Friday. (Photo: Shripad Naik)
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Mumbai president Ashish Shelar, Union minister for communications and information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union minister for social justice and empowerment Sudarshan Bhagat and MLA Captain R. Tamil Selvan during the party workers meeting held at Vasant Smriti Bhavan, Dadar on Friday. (Photo: Shripad Naik)
Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday asserted that corruption-free economic growth is the mission of the NDA government. The minister addressed a Vikas Parv event organised by the department of telecommunication, post and IT in Mumbai.
“I work from the Sanchar Bhawan in New Delhi, where the 2G scam had taken place. Our government has rooted out corruption from the telecom ministry and the entry of middlemen is banned in my office,” Mr Prasad said.
He further said that the government was able to auction spectrum worth Rs 1,09,000 crore without fingers being pointed at it. He said, the coal ministry had conducted an even bigger coal auction — one worth Rs 3,00,000 crore — in a transparent manner.
Underlining the government’s commitment to growth and development, Mr Prasad detailed the excellent performance of organisations under his ministry. He said the public sector telecom service provider Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, which had posted a loss of Rs 8,000 crore in 2014, has managed to post an operating profit of Rs 672 crore and its mobile phone subscription has shot up from 8 lakh to 23 lakh.
Mr Prasad said India Post, which had four ATMs in 2014 now operates 913 ATMs across the country. “The Speed Post service of India Post has been described the best courier service in the country by the CAG,” he added.
The minister also said that India’s IT and IT enabled services today have a footprint in 80 countries, covering 200 cities. He said India accounted for 56 per cent of the global IT outsourcing.
He said the JAM (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile) plan today reaches 31 crore beneficiaries with 59 schemes involving Rs 61,822 crore and the Direct Benefit Transfer has helped save Rs 36,500 crore. Mr Prasad said all these schemes were being implemented on the digital platform. The minister further said that digital technology has also promoted ‘jan bhaagidari’ (people’s participation), where 2 million people interact with the government on the MyGov platform, giving suggestions and sharing their thoughts.
