NEW DELHI: Five crore people came out of the poverty line in the past two years and about Rs 90,000 crore were saved by eliminating fraudulent beneficiaries of government schemes, PM Modi said on Wednesday as he highlighted the efforts of his government to improve the life of the poor.

He also quoted the findings of a study by US-based think tank Brookings, which had found India’s poorest of the poor population reduced from 125 million in 2016 to 73 million people in May 2018.

Modi said since the government started the campaign for cleansing the system and plugging leakages, six crore bogus beneficiaries of government schemes were removed from the system. “The person who was never born... but the money was pilfered on his name by using bogus names. This government has put an end to it,” Modi said.

