Reiterating that the four most important castes in the country are poor, youth, women and farmers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted today that service to the poor, respect of labourers and honour of the downtrodden are his and his government’s top priorities.

Virtually addressing the function of ‘Mazdooron Ke Hit – Mazdooron Ko Samarpit’ – to disburse long-awaited monetary benefits of mill labourers to them, the PM said that he was extremely happy and satisfied to be a witness to the payment of Rs 224 crore to 4800 labourers of Hukumchand Textile Mill at Indore in Madhya Pradesh.

The labourers had been waging a battle for over 30 years to receive their outstanding dues from the closed mill, which was once one of the biggest cotton and textile producing mills of the country.

The PM said that a cheque of Rs 224 crore has been handed over symbolically today to the representatives of the mill’s labour union and the liquidators.

“This amount will soon be distributed to the labourers and their family members and everyone will remember 25 December, which is late PM Atal Behari Vajpayee’s birthday and the ‘Good Governance Day’, as the day when labourers got their rightful justice too,” the PM stated.

He said the government’s aim is to empower the labourers so that they play an important role in ensuring India becomes a developed nation.

The PM expressed his happiness over the fact that the first public function of Chief Minister Dr Mohan Yadav-led new BJP government in MP is dedicated to the benefit of the poor labourers, who had been struggling for many years.

The PM assured that his double-engine government would continue working dedicatedly for the uplift of the poor and they would continue showering their blessings and love upon the government in return.

Informing that the erstwhile Holkar dynasty had set up the first textile mill at Indore, the PM said once Indore was compared to Manchester and the cotton produced in the Malwa region was exported to far-off European countries and many other parts of the world too.

The PM accused the former governments (of the Congress) for their bad policies, which destroyed the textile industry and the brunt was felt at Indore too.