PM talks of ‘surgical strikes’ on black money

VADODARA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today hinted at further stringent actions to unearth more black money in coming days and claimed that his was the first government in the country since the Independence to formulate an aviation policy to tap the potential of small cities.

PM Narendra Modi with Gujarat Governor OP Kohli (L) and CM Vijay Rupani (R) at Vadodara on Saturday. PTI

Manas Dasgupta

Vadodara, October 22

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today hinted at further stringent actions to unearth more black money in coming days and claimed that his was the first government in the country since the Independence to formulate an aviation policy to tap the potential of small cities.

In his first visit to the central Gujarat city since becoming the Prime Minister, Modi dedicated to the nation the newly-constructed international airport terminal in Vadodara and later distributed aid kits to over 10,000 'divyangs' (differently-abled people).

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Modi claimed while more than Rs 65,000 crore was unearthed under the voluntary income declaration scheme, another nearly Rs 36,000 crore was "saved" only by checking corruption.

“By eliminating middlemen in the distribution of governmental assistances to the needy people, we have saved nearly Rs 36,000 which all these years were going to wrong people,” he claimed.

Cautioning the black-money holders, who did not come out clean under the last voluntary income declaration scheme, which ended on September 30, Modi said: "Over Rs 65,000 crore of unaccounted money was declared under the IDS and that too without any ‘surgical strike’. Imagine what all would come out if we initiate surgical strikes,” he said.

Pointing out that new integrated air terminal in Vadodara would be the second “green terminal” in the country after Kochi, Modi accused the previous governments of lacking vision in the aviation sector and claimed that his government was working in “mission mode” for expansion of the sector.

He believed that India in the near future would become the third country in the world in terms of airport activity benchmarks upstaging the United Kingdom with more middle-class families aspiring to travel by air. He said the country's development could take new dimensions if the tier-2 and tier-3 cities were bought on the aviation map.

He said earlier also the airports were constructed and the planes flew, but “the country did not have an aviation policy to give a direction to take the sector forward”.

“After the new NDA government came to power, for the first time since Independence it formulated a new aviation policy for the country and we are working in a mission mode for expansion,” he said.