Congress never had will to end corruption: Modi

Varanasi, Jan 22 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday that successive Congress governments since Independence never had the will nor intention to end corruption, but his government has done it in the last four-and-a-half years.

Without naming Rajiv Gandhi, Modi said that a former Prime Minister had famously said that of the 100 rupees that the Central government doles out for public welfare, only 15 rupees reach the beneficiaries with the rest 85 per cent leaked through corruption.

"It was an admission of a fact, of a system that the party which ruled for so long had given to the country. But even during its later rule of 10-15 years, the party never tried to stop this pilferage. The middle class taxpayer sincerely kept paying taxes and the loot of 85 per cent continued," Modi said at Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas.

"Now I will tell you the present situation. Using technology, we have completely ended this 85 per cent pilferage. If we had not changed the system, the loot would have continued. This could have been done earlier, but there was no intent, no will," he added.

Modi said in the last 4.5 years, his government has disbursed 5.78 lakh crore rupees or 80 billion dollars under various schemes through direct benefit transfer to the beneficiaries' bank accounts.

He said if the old system had been allowed to continues, 4.91 lakh crore rupees would have leaked through corruption.

Modi said his government identified and cleaned 7 crore fake beneficiaries who existed only on paper.

"Our government is now working to ensure that in every welfare scheme, money is transferred directly to the bank account of the beneficiary," he said.