Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not believe in the principle of entitlement but instead empowering the people, said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday as she highlighted the achievements from 'Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana' and 'e-Shram portal. Addressing the 96th and 97th Annual Day celebrations of Shri Ram College of Commerce in the national capital, the Union minister said that free food grains were provided to around 80 crore people under PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana during Covid-19 pandemic. 


"Prime Minister Narendra Modi doesn't believe in the principle of 'Entitlement'. He strongly believes in 'Empowering' people, giving them the choice of what they want to do, spending on fundamental things that give them the power to decide where they want to be, and providing them with access to resources and essential facilities like housing, roads, drinking water, toilets, etc,” said Sitharaman. 


“We launched PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana to ensure that nobody remains hungry. When migrant workers were going back, we mapped out the districts where they were going in significant numbers and converged programs of various ministries so that employment could be provided to them in their own respective villages,” she said. 


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“Rs 50,000 crores were allotted to provide employment for 125 days to them in their respective villages under PM Garib Kalyan Rozgar Yojana," she added.


The Finance Minister also said that over 400 different types of jobs got registered on the e-Shram portal. 


"Through the eShram portal launched by the Modi government, many unorganised sector workers got registered in the portal and got to choose the nature of the work they want to do as per their respective skills,” she said. 


“Even the option of skill upgradation was provided to them. More than 400 different types of jobs were registered on the e-Shram portal. Around 29 crore people are registered on the portal out of which more than 50 per cent are women," she added.