New Delhi: In the first interview after the December Assembly elections defeat in three states, Union minister for textiles Smriti Irani told MyNation the accusation that the Narendra Modi government has not created enough jobs was wrong.

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“Under the (Pradhan Mantri) Awas Yojana, we have built 1.3 crore rural homes. Do the math. Each home takes at least about a 145 man days and takes 7-8 skilled and unskilled people to build,” she said. “In MNREGA, we have 1.7 crore capital assets made. Under the UPA, it was only 36 lakh. People must have been employed to do it.”

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Irani said her labour-intensive textile ministry was doing more than its bit to help the job situation.

For the full interview, click here

“Textiles was so unimportant for Congress, out of the 41 schemes, they used to surrender 100% money for 22 schemes! Policies were made without any data,” she said.

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“I started the statistics unit. Industry numbers say for every Rs 1 crore investment, 70 people get jobs. Modi gave a Rs 600-crore package to the industry. Since then, close to $4 billion investment is coming to India,” Irani said.

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