Bhubaneswar, June 20 (UNI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the country has increasingly “experienced the BJP’s development model”, pointing to the recent trajectories of Assam, Tripura and, most recently, Odisha.
Addressing a rally marking the first anniversary of Odisha’s BJP government, the Prime Minister contrasted the “previous regime’s model of governance—marked by delay, obstruction, derailment and corruption” with what he called a decade of “good governance that makes people’s lives easier”.
Highlighting the Eastern India as a case study, Modi said a decade ago Assam was mired in instability, separatism and violence.
“Today the guns have fallen silent and Assam is out‑pacing many other states on several parameters,” he said.
In Tripura ,the Prime Minister said after decades of Left rule, Tripura “lagged on every development indicator,” from crumbling infrastructure to unresponsive administration.
Now, Modi argued, it has become “a symbol of peace and progress.”
Coming to Odisha , he said, it had long wrestled with widespread corruption, red‑tapism and poor infrastructure, leaving many regions behind.
“Over the past year we have worked with full resolve to change that reality,” he declared.
Modi credited the union‑and‑state “double engine” approach for a spate of projects worth “thousands of crores” inaugurated on Friday. This model, he said, is delivering twin benefits:
He said lakhs of poor families in Odisha previously excluded from Ayushman Bharat now receive coverage under both the Ayushman Bharat Jan Arogya Yojana and Odisha’s Gopabandhu Jan Arogya Yojana.
Nearly three crore Odias are eligible for cash‑free treatment—inside and outside the state—and more than two lakh patients have already availed themselves of the scheme in hospitals across a dozen states.
Under Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana, over 23 lakh senior citizens (70+) in Odisha can claim up to Rs.5 lakh in free medical care, significantly easing household health costs.
Modi said the farmers in Odisha now receive combined assistance under PM‑KISAN and the state’s complementary schemes.
The higher paddy procurement prices, promised last year, have already benefited lakhs of cultivators, Modi said.
The Prime Minister lamented that tribal communities had been kept “in poverty and deprivation for decades” and “used for political gain” by earlier governments, which in turn fueled Naxalism.
“Our model brings development to these regions instead of driving them toward violence and oppression,” he asserted.
UNI
