Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maandhan Yojana: PM Narendra Modi launches pension scheme for unorganised sector

Mar 5 (AZINS) Previous governments at the centre have ignored interests of unorganized workers, while NDA government is committed to their welfare, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in Ahmedabad during the national launch of Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maandhan Yojana (PM-SYM) on Tuesday.

The scheme will ensure monthly pension to unorganized workers after they attain age of 60 years. India has close to 42 crore unorganized workers. The scheme has been simultaneously launched at about two lakh locations across the country.

Lashing out at political parties now in opposition, the prime minister said that previous governments only took political benefits from the poor without actually ensuring their welfare. "The raised slogans like Garibi Hatao. They played politics around it. The Communists never brought a scheme for unorganized workers. What parties did not do in 55 years, my government did in 55 months," said Modi.

He also said that leaders of opposition parties consider poverty as a state of mind because they never had to go to bed hungry. "Poverty is an outcome of their faulty mentality. For us, poverty is a challenge," he said.

The prime minister also said that the common aim of opposition parties is to remove him from power but he aims to remove poverty and dishonesty.