Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President, Jagat Prakash Nadda on Thursday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi not only led the nation in decisive fight against Covid-19, but showed the way to entire world during pandemic.

“In the beginning of pandemic, even the powerful nations were not able to decide whether to fight Covid and save humanity or focus on economy. Despite having good health systems, everything visibly crumbled in those nations and they were feeling helpless. However, PM, Modi Modi declared a war against Corona to save humanity and took timely decision on the lockdown to protect 130 crore Indians,” he said.

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Nadda was addressing the BJP workers after laying the foundation stones of party offices in six organisational districts in HP- Nurpur, Kangra, Dehra, Palampur, Sundernagar and Kullu- virtually.

He said while there was no dedicated Covid hospital in India when the lockdown started, there are over 1500 dedicated Covid hospitals in the country now. “Now we have 1800 labs for Covid tests, where 15 lakh tests are being done daily on an average. Initially we had the capacity to conduct 1500 Covid tests in the country,” he said.

He said in the beginning of lockdown, India was totally dependent on imports for masks, PPE kits and ventilators for Covid.

“Now we are manufacturing four lakh PPE kits every day and ventilators too,” he said.

The national BJP President said by providing Rs 1.70 lakh crore for Gareeb Kalyan Yojna and Rs 20 lakh crore for Atamnirbhar Bharat campaign, PM Modi not only gave new direction to the economy in the midst of Covid, but has taken a strong step to empower 80 crore poor people in the country. He said during Covid, over 8.5 crore farmers in India were given two instalments of ‘Krishi Samman Nidhi’ and the government also started Agriculture Infrastructure Yojna worth Rs one lakh crore. He said the PM has also announced to give relief to the migrant workers during Covid lockdown by providing them free ration till November.“Modi hai toh mumkin hai,” Nadda said.

Referring to agriculture reforms, Nadda said the Modi government brought Farm Bills to give freedom to the farmers for the first time. “The farmers can sell their produce in any part of the country now on any price,” he said. He said this will also benefit the fruit growers of Himachal Pradesh. He said in Atamnirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan, the Modi government has kept the provision of Rs three lakh crore for small, micro and medium enterprises. “Himachal government and the BJP should work on getting the maximum benefit to the farmers and entrepreneurs in the state under this scheme,” he said. He said the Atamnirbhar Abhiyaan will pave the way for branding of traditional Chamba Rumaal, Kullu shawls, Lahaul Spiti and Shimla camps, stone carving and Himachali cuisine.

Nadda said when Modi was party incharge for Himachal, the BJP office in state used to run from two flats. He said Modi had mentioned in those times that this system could not work in longer run.

He said under the leadership of Modi as PM and Ami Shah as BJP President, the BJP had decided to have an office in every district in the country. As many as 432 district offices of BJP have already been constructed out of 719 districts.

Himachal Chief Minister, Jai Ram Thakur, former CMs, Prem Kumar Dhumal and Shanta Kumar, state BJP Chief, Suresh Kashyap, Union Minister of state for finance, Anurag Thakur and other ministers from the state also attended the virtual foundation stone laying ceremony of BJP offices.