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PM Modi Story By: Mansukh Mandaviya
Shri Narendra Modi ushered in a paradigm shift in governance that paved the way to inclusive, development-oriented and corruption-free governance in Gujarat. Shri Modi took oath as Gujarat Chief Minister on 7th October, 2001 for the first time and he made it a mission to deliver corruption-free governance to the people of Gujarat.
The policies introduced by CM Shri Narendra Modi gave a new dimension to the state’s governance introducing transparency and assuring corruption-free governance, at times through bold decision-making and standing firm with those decisions.
Gujarat was marred by widespread electricity theft in the state. These thefts incurred huge dents in the state’s exchequer. Most of these thefts were by the farmers in the rural Gujarat where electricity was nearly a distant dream.
Shri Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister shares an interesting anecdote on how Shri Modi curbed this mass electricity theft.
CM Shri Narendra Modi decided to put up posters of farmers with handcuffs all over Gujarat. He announced that government will not allow electricity theft in the state.
He introduced building Bori Bandh (sack dam) under the MNREGA scheme and ran this campaign for a year. This campaign resulted in connecting every small street to the Bori Bandh (Sack Dam) scheme
Shri Modi made it mandatory for everyone to install meters.
His decision was severely opposed and many movements took place against the state government. At that time, we all were kind of not sure about his decision.
“I also suggested him not to move ahead with this decision because it will create a bad impression and it may result adversely in the coming elections. After giving a good ear, Shri Modi told me that the real problem in the state was not electricity rather it was the water supply.”
After sometime he started working for the improvement of water supply and made the check dams which he took as a mission.
He introduced building Bori Bandh (sack dam) under the MNREGA scheme and ran this campaign for a year. This campaign resulted in connecting every small street to the Bori Bandh (Sack Dam) scheme. As a result, the water level increased and the places which were under black zone also flourished with water. This ended the problem of water scarcity.
Moving ahead with his decision, Shri Modi announced that electricity will be provided for eight hours on a regular basis for metered connections and the electricity theft should end.
After this, not only electricity was used efficiently, but water scarcity was also addressed. Eight hours of electricity availability proved useful to the farmers. It turned out to be a revolutionary step taken by CM Shri Modi.