PANAJI
Union Minister of Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal who had an overnight pit-stop in Goa, interacted with industry captains and representatives of industry bodies claimed all public-interface in his departments had been eliminated and functioning entirely digitised.
“I have eliminated all personal interface. Any hiccups can now be resolved online,” Goyal said, adding that physical offices are being eliminated to bring interface to zero levels.
Addressing top Goan industrialists and representatives of the GCCI, CII, ASSOCHAM and other industrial bodies, Goyal took a dig at previous Congress-led regimes for the corruption involved and claimed that the Modi government had eliminated graft.
He said, nearly 29 lakh crores of rupees had been spent (invested) into development over the last nine years, completely eliminating corruption.
“If this quantum of money was spent during the Congress regime, 70 per-cent would have gone into corruption,” Goyal said, citing the coal gate scam.
He said, nearly 600 million people (which is more than the population of Europe), had benefited from this investment in the last nine years.
“Much of this (9 lakh crore) was in the form of direct benefit in bank accounts of the beneficiaries,” Goyal said.
He added that the Modi government had not discriminated either on the basis of caste and creed nor on the basis of States governed by non-BJP parties.
He however criticised some Opposition ruled States for refusing to accept benefits of these central schemes and cited the West Bengal government’s rejection of the Ayushman Bharat medical benefit scheme.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, Industries Minister Mauvin Godinho and BJP State president, Sadanand Shet Tanavade, who also heads the State-owned Economic Development Corporation (EDC), were present at the starred hotel where Goyal mingled with the industrialists.
