Mr Gadkari recalled his role in building Mumbai-Pune Expressway and other projects (File)
The Congress is responsible for the large-scale migration of people, since Independence, from villages to towns in the country, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Thursday.
He was speaking at a rally at Nizamabad in Telangana as part of the state BJP's 'Vijay Sankalp Yatra' ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
The welfare of villages, the poor, labourers and farmers, could not happen since Independence though the country's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru made a lot of promises, he alleged.
"The condition of farmers in our country is not good. The reason for that is that Jawaharlal Nehru became Prime Minister in 1947 and the Congress government came. Mr Nehru made a lot of promises to us. But, the welfare of villages, poor, labourers and farmers could not happen," he said.
Gandhiji used to say then that 90 per cent of our population lived in villages. However, slowly, such a situation arose that people left villages and started moving towards towns, the union minister said.
The population in cities like Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Nagpur and Pune kept on increasing, while the population in villages decreased, he said.
Now, only 65 per cent of the country's population lives in villages and others have left the rural areas due to the Congress party's wrong economic policies, he alleged.
During the previous Congress rule, the condition of roads was bad in villages, there was no drinking water and farmers did not get the right price for their produce, he said.
Mr Gadkari recalled his role in building Mumbai-Pune Expressway and other projects as a minister in Maharashtra and later submitting a report to the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on the popular Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has given importance to the progress of villages, the poor, labourers and farmers since it assumed office in 2014, he said.
Highlighting the importance of roads, the Union Road Transport and Highways Minister said his ministry is laying roads worth Rs two lakh crore in Telangana.
'Kashmir to Kanyakumari' used to be mentioned in speeches of political leaders, but the NDA government has laid roads from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, he said.
Mr Gadkari appealed to people to support the BJP to ensure jobs for youth, the welfare of farmers and rights for women.
The union minister, who spoke about his work in promoting ethanol, said IndianOil has decided to open 400 ethanol pumps in the country in future.
"Ethanol made from paddy, sugarcane juice, molasses, bamboo and rice straw will become the fuel of our country and our imports will come down (from) Rs 16 lakh crore. The Rs 5 lakh - Rs 7 lakh crore that will be saved would go into the pockets of farmers. Farmers would become prosperous," he said.
BJP MP from Nizamabad D Aravind and party leaders were present.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)