Media is chowkidar over govt, says Union Minister

Hyderabad: Union Railway Minister Piyush Goel on Saturday said that media is a chowkidar over the functioning of every government in the country.

Addressing an interactive session on a theme 'Vision of India' organised by the Committee of FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO) here, he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government at the Centre had extended its help to the women industrialist and entrepreneurs in the last five years.

Referring to the various initiatives of the government, the Minister said, "We can create wonders only when we think out of the box." The government at the Centre had moved with such spirit and out of box thinking in rolling out several schemes keeping in mind the future of the country and her people.

Goel said that it was with such spirit that the government had taken up electrification of 18,452 villages. The programme also faced several hurdles like the engineers engaged in the electrification works had been kidnapped by the Maoists. However, such hurdles were overcome.

Bringing a Railway mobile application to provide all necessary details about the railways in it. However, it was brought to our notice that the application was not helping in providing better food to the passengers. Immediately, the project has been taken over by the government and all IRCTC canteens are installed with the CCTV cameras.

Recollecting his experience during his earlier stint as the power minister, Goel said the government wanted to bring into use LED bulbs to save the power. However, each bulb was earlier procured at the rate of Rs 310 per bulb.

However, after the Modi government had come to power, it was decided to replace the existing bulbs with LED ones. And, "After negotiations, the price of each bulb had come down to Rs 39.