Piyush Goyal, minister of state for power, coal and renewable energy was the chief guest at the event organized by Overseas Friends of BJP (USA) to celebrate the successful completion of one year of BJP led NDA government in India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Lotus Hall, India Cultural Center in Tampa, Florida, May 17.

Prominent members of the Indian American community representing various organizations attended the event. A group from Kerala State accorded Mr. Goyal a traditional welcome by playing drums and a women group wearing traditional attire showered flowers.

Shri Chandrakanth Patel, National President â€“ OFBJP (USA) in his welcome address highlighted the work done by Shri Piyush Goyal in terms of transparency in eAuctioning of coal blocks and setting up new power plants in various states and implement news programs to harness solar energy. He elaborated on various activities conducted by OFBJP-USA such as â€œChai pe Charchaâ€, â€œRun for Unityâ€, Google Hangouts, Community Outreach programs, phone calls to Indian voters, volunteers going to India for election campaigning, etc. These activities continued since 2013 when Shri Narendra Modi gave his live address to the Indian Diaspora in USA leading up to the completion of general elections in India during May 2014. He recognized and thanked all community leaders and other attendees for actively participating in the celebrations.

Shri Piyush Goyal in his eloquent speech of about 90 minutes spoke on various aspects of the good governance that is being provided by Modi government. It was one year ago that on 16thMay 2014, a golden chapter was written in the history of India when 1.25 billion people of India for the first time in 30 years democratically elected a single-party majority government by peaceful mandate and made the most popular leader in the Independent India Shri Narendra Modi as the prime minister. He is now emerging as a world leader. Under his leadership in the last one year, India has achieved so much progress in all areas that it is emerging as an economic super power.

Regarding his ministry of coal and energy, Shri Goyal narrated at length how he could cleanse the coal block allocations through a transparent and real time eAuction process that fetched the government Rs 189,000 crores by selling just 20 coal blocks and expected to reach Rs 300,000 crores when all the blocks are auctioned. He said that from 2010 to 2013, coal production grew by 31 million tons and in comparison just in 10 months during his tenure, the production grew by 32 Million tons topping a total of 494 Million tons. He has set a target of 1Billion tons by 2019. Once this target is met and other projects initiated by his ministry are completed, India would have enough power to provide everyone 24x7 electricity, an important promise of Modi government.

He emphasized that the goal of Modi government is complete elimination of corruption and not just reduction in corruption. He said that first year of Modi government has been completely scam free, and the credit goes to Shri Modiji who had promised to the nation, â€œNa khaunga and na khane dungaâ€.

He explained how he himself has been able to increase the work efficiency by reducing 100 files a day norm to few files with prior completion of root cause analysis and identifying issues and risks. He also said that in the first parliamentary session, there were so many questions about coal related issues, but in the last session, there were hardly any.

Shri Goyal also talked about the importance of OFBJP work in serving the needs and issues related to Indian Diaspora and appreciated its efforts during 2013-14 leading up to the completion of general elections in India. He said that BJP in India recognizes the importance and contribution of OFBJP (USA) as the first overseas organization to inform, educate and publicize the policies of BJP to the Indian Diaspora and the Western world.

Shri Piyush Goyal inaugurated a website (www.dreamindianetwork.com) as requested by Lalji Goswami, and OFBJP team. The new website is designed to bring experts and well-accomplished Indian origin persons onto one platform in order to share knowledge and experience and help Indiaâ€™s development. An extended Question and Answer session was conducted for about 90 minutes. Following are the highlighted answers provided by Shri Piyush Goyal to some of the key questions:

Â· Women security - the government has directed 33% representation of woman in Delhi Police. Parents should also teach their sons the right values of respecting and behaving with women.

Â· Pilferage in Coal Industry â€“ Government is doing a pilot scale study by using the satellite technology, RFID technology, and Geo/Electronic Fencing to track the movement and they will consider implementing it across the board based on the findings

Â· Transmission Losses - Working to reduce the power transmission losses to 12% from the current 23%. In order to reduce power consumption our goal is to install LED lights in streets throughout the country within 3 years. His ministry brought down the purchase price of LED bulb from Rs 350 (during UPA regime) to Rs 79 through transparent eBidding process.

Â· Solar Energy â€“ The goal is to reduce current KW rate of Rs 7 to 5 employing smart meters.

Earlier, Shri Yamir Bhatt, Social Media Convener presented an audio-visual presentation on BJP governmentâ€™s initiatives and accomplishments during its first year in office. He also introduced the eventâ€™s chief guest, Honâ€™ble Piyush Goyal. Shri Lalji Goswami, OFBJP Youth convener acted as the Emcee for the program and welcomed the audience, and other dignitaries. Shri Brahm Aggrawal, President of Hindu University Orlando, Shri Nainan Desai, from HSS and HAF; Shri Sudhir Shah, President Gujarati Samaj of Tampa Bay and Shri Satya Shaw, CEO of Satya Tax and Advisory were also honored.

The program started with cultural programs (Ganesh Vandana Dance and other patriotic dances) and the traditional lamp lighting ceremony. Other than Shri Piyush Ji, community leaders Dr. G Ramappa, Dr. PC Zala, Dr. Ashok Modh, Shri Nainan Desai, Shri Sudhir Shah, Shri Satya Shaw and Shri Chandrakant Patel accompanied the dignitaries followed by the rendition of Vandemataram led by Shri Chandrakant Patel and Shri Lalji Goswami. Shri Haresh Patel, himself a sponsor gave vote of thanks to our sponsors Shri Sudhir Shah, Shri Satya Shaw, ICC, Parimal Butala for patriotic music orchestra, Smt. Gopa Ratre for Cultural dances, all OFBJP members and volunteers, Tampa bay Indians, Khashiyat Indian Restaurant for the delicious dinner in the beginning of the event.

India has achieved so much in one year: Minister Piyush goyal