Gwalior :In a decimating blitzkrieg against the Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi thundered on Monday that the “anti-development, corruption-ridden and power-hungry” party neither possesses fresh thought nor a development roadmap but is ironically brimful of hatred for the nation’s progress and public-welfare schemes.

Addressing a public meeting in this divisional headquarters of election-bound Madhya Pradesh, the visiting dignitary averred, “Wallowing in this abominable hate, they turn a Nelson’s eye to the country’s achievements, which are attracting global plaudits. They are entangled in nefarious politics and cannot see anything except the saddle of power.”

The electorate provided the Congress as much as six decades and a tremendous amount of work could have been achieved during that 60-year period, the Prime Minister observed, adding that the ample opportunity was quite simply squandered.

“That unequivocally underlined their abysmal failure. The small peasants were simply ignored. They also played with the sentiments of the indigent and that is something they have not ceased perpetrating. Caste was misused as a plank for effectuating social schism and they are still committing that sin.

Paeans were sung for a single family and that remains their course of action,” Mr Modi emphasised.

Raining fire on the housing scheme of the Centre’s erstwhile Congress dispensations, he said, “It was a sheer medium for loot. The dwellings constructed were unliveable. Lakhs of targeted beneficiaries never set foot within those abodes that were shoddily-constructed sets of four walls without toilets, power, water and cooking gas.”

Earlier governments made hollow promises of 33 per cent women’s reservation for garnering votes but conspired within Parliament to erect roadblocks in the path of that vital legislation, the Prime Minister alleged.

During Congress rule in Madhya Pradesh, the Gwalior-Chambal region was an epicentre of injustice and atrocities, he said, adding that a deaf ear was turned to the weak and backward even as people took the law into their own hands.

“Did you notice any Congress person participating in the cleanliness drive on October 1? Can you repose trust in such people?” the Prime Minister asked rhetorically.

He dedicated to the nation the Delhi-Vadodara Expressway, which has been developed by incurring an expenditure of approximately Rs 11,895 crore.

Mr Modi laid – through the virtual medium – the foundation stone for five road projects worth over Rs 1,880 crore; initiated Grih Pravesh of over 2.2 lakh dwellings constructed under PMAY-Gramin; dedicated to the people abodes built under PMAY-Urban at an expense of about Rs 140 crore; laid the foundation stone for Jal Jeevan Mission projects worth over Rs 1,530 crore in Gwalior and Sheopur districts and laid the foundation stone for nine health centres to be developed at a cost of over Rs 150 crore.

The Prime Minister dedicated the academic building of IIT Indore and laid the foundation stone for a hostel and other buildings. Further, he laid the foundation stone of a Multi-Modal Logistics Park at Indore and dedicated various projects including an Integrated Industrial Township in Ujjain, an IOCL bottling plant and the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Divyang Sports Training Centre here.