Page 224 - SocialHarmony

228 Social Harmony

eligible people by reaching out to them in their villages and
houses. We have disbursed a sum of 40 crore rupees to the
eligible people. We are not here to siphon off the government
funds. We are the guards, the watchmen; our work is to utilize
every single penny; the work should be good, and this amount
should reach the poor people, this is the total amenability of
this government. And from this has risen the concept of the
poor welfare fairs.

The governments in the past too had framed schemes; all
governments do this, and provide for a specific amount in the
budget for the same. If you go 25 km in any direction in Gujarat,
you will find developmental activities undergoing there, they
may be of one type or the other. You will find a pathway being
constructed at one place, a nullah at another, a hospital at the
third, a school at yet another. The elderly village people gather
at the chaupals and discuss while smoking the hookahs. They talk
where from the affectionate Modi is bringing all this money.
They talk in these terms because people never knew where the
government funds went off earlier. It is for the first time for the
people of Gujarat to see that money is coming to them; this
money is being produced right here, and all this is perceptible
to the people of Gujarat for the first time.

The organisation of poor welfare fairs has helped to
gradually cultivate the sense of self-pride in people. People are
becoming self-dependent. Why did the farmer not get a tractor?
Why did a poor artisan not get tools? Now you can find yourself
that one artisan took tools for masonry, another for tailoring
work, and yet another for radio-repairing. I am aware that the
people of India are not lazy, they are not poor or helpless, they
do not like to beg before others, they are ready to work hard,
they do not like to live a life of penury and poverty; they only
need a support by which they can become self-dependent. My
effort is guided towards the situation when the poor men are
given the support of this poor welfare fair, so that they become
ready to fight with poverty.

Every parent wishes that his offspring should not inherit
poverty. The parents wish that their children should not be poor.