New Delhi, June 17: Everyone can make promises to people but the Modi government’s “strong point” is that it delivers services and projects in a given timeframe, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday.
He was speaking during a function held at Badarpur here as part of the BJP’s mega outreach campaign — ‘Sampark se Samarthan’ — to mark the completion of the nine years of the Narendra Modi government.
“After elections, they forget (their promises made to people), but in Modi ‘sarkar’, people today are seeing the delivery (of services and projects),” the Union minister told reporters after attending the function at the site of an Eco Park being developed at the NTPC’s Thermal Power Plant area in Badarpur.
The Eco Park project is currently underway, and South Delhi MP and BJP leader Ramesh Bidhuri said the park is planned to be inaugurated in December.
Jaishankar praised NTPC, the party MP and other local functionaries on the green project.
“This Eco Park will become a new lung of Delhi. I congratulate all who are part of this project. It will not only help in mitigating pollution but enhance ease of living of people and ease of doing business too by promoting economic activities around it. This park is a proof that Modi ‘sarkar’ doesn’t just offer promises. It completes what work it starts, in a given timeframe, and delivers it, shows it to people,” he said.
Later interacting with reporters, external affairs minister said that the “strong point” of the Modi government is “delivery”, as everyone can make promises.
“For Modi government, ‘vikas’ is the first commitment, so it’s a ‘teerth’ (pilgrimage) of commitments,” Jaishankar said.
The BJP organised a “Vikas Teerth Yatra”, which began from Eco Park at Badarpur, and Jaishankar and several senior BJP leaders were part of it.
People in Badarpur will also see “which government delivers and which government only promises,” the minister said, without naming anyone.
As an external affairs minister, “I can tell you that I visit countries across the world, see many cities and capitals”, he told reporters. He said he wanted the best practices in the world to come to India.
It is also Prime Minister Modi’s vision “as whenever he sees abroad a process, say of cleaning a river or building a station or adoption of a new technology, he wishes to bring those best practices to India too”, Jaishankar said.
The Union minister was accompanied by senior BJP leaders, including Lok Sabha member Ramesh Bidhuri, Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri and Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva.
After the Eco Park event, Jaishankar also visited a project site on the Mumbai Expressway, addressed a gathering at the All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA), visited an amphitheatre and sports ground, a power plant at Tughlakabad, a waste-to-energy plant, the Okhla Sarita Vihar underpass, EWS flats at Govindpuri, the IGNOU rugby ground, a college in Bhanti Bans, the Mahipalpur underpass and the Dwarka Sports Complex, the Delhi BJP said in a statement.
At AIIA, Jaishankar said, its foundation stone was laid about 20 years ago by then vice president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.
“The result you can see it. The Modi government has take this project forward. And, AIIA being established in Delhi is not a small thing. It is a big message for credibility of Ayurveda, and the world can connect with such an institution,” he said.
“As a foreign minister, our efforts is to increase understanding of Ayurveda world over. The WHO had decided to set up Global Centre for Traditional Medicine. Modi ji had wanted that it should be in India only. And, through his efforts this Centre is coming up in Gujarat. Our expectation is that our hospitals and research centres will work together with the Centre,” Jaishankar added.
Modi had laid the foundation stone of the WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine (GCTM) in Jamnagar, Gujarat, in April 2022.
The primary objective of the WHO GCTM is to harness the potential of traditional medicines from across the world through modern science and technology and improve overall health of communities world over. The Centre will highlight the potential of traditional medicine and utilise technological advancements to promote its safe and effective use.
The Eco Park coming up at Badarpur will be spread over 885 acres, and it will be a major tourist attraction. It will have many facilities, including a lake for boating, fountains, gazebos, butterfly park and bamboo jungle, Bidhuri said.
Delhi BJP chief Sachdeva said that this will be “Asia’s largest eco park”.
In the name of removing pollution, the AAP government in Delhi has only been “playing the game of lies and accusations” for the last eight years while in the same Delhi this eco park created by the central government will make the area around it pollution free, he claimed.
There was no immediate reaction from the AAP. In response to a query from reporters, Sachdeva alleged that every officer who is probing any “scam” in the AAP government becomes a “target”. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal wants to “keep looting Delhi silently” and that no one should say anything. (PTI)
