Palamau (Jharkhand)/Bhubaneswar: In an obvious attack on the Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that he preferred to complete the pending irrigation projects to empower farmers instead of waiving their loans.
Modi told a public rally in Palamau, about 160 km from Ranchi, that when he took power in May 2014, he found that several irrigation projects were pending for 30 to 40 years.
“Our government has started work on 99 pending irrigation projects at a cost of Rs 90,000 crore. Our government preferred to complete the irrigation projects instead of waiving loans,” he said after laying the foundation stones of six irrigation projects.
Work on the North Koel (Mandal) irrigation project was started in 1972 and ended in 1993, Modi said. The irrigation project is now a joint venture of Bihar and Jharkhand.
The Prime Minister said that it would irrigate 111,000 hectare of land including 19,000 hectares in Jharkhand.
In 1972, the project cost was Rs 30 crore which had now swollen to Rs 2,400 crore, he pointed out.
“Keeping the irrigation projects pending was criminal negligence on the part of the previous government,” he said.
“How could a irrigation project be pending for 50 years? The previous government viewed farmers as a vote bank while our government considers them Annadata.”
Again attacking the Congress, Modi said: “The previous government first made the farmer take loan and is now doing the drama of loan waiving.
“Our government believes in strengthening the farmer and empowering them by ensuring irrigation to agriculture land.”
Modi congratulated Chief Ministers Nitish Kumar of Bihar and Raghubar Das of Jharkhand for setting an example of cooperative federalism.
“I congratulate both Chief Minister for starting the Mandal dam project. This is happening when many states are fighting over water and the cases are in the Supreme Court.”
Modi also took a dig at Congress President Rahul Gandhi but without taking his name.
“Those who are showing concern for farmers must not be knowing what Koel is? They must be confused whether Koel is the name of a bird or something else.”
He also targeted the Congress for launching housing schemes in the name of former Prime Ministers.
“I changed the name of the housing schemes so that the PM Awas Yojna should continue under any Prime Minister. Earlier middlemen were active in the housing scheme… Now everything is done in a transparent manner. The housing scheme beneficiaries are now women.
“In less than five years, we have constructed more than 1.25 crore houses and in five years of the Madam-controlled government only 25 lakh houses were built,” he said, referring to former Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
On the other hand, addressing a rally later in the afternoon in Odisha’s Baripada district, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the central government is giving importance on increasing connectivity across the country, as he launched projects worth over Rs 4,500 crore in Odisha’s Baripada district.
“Today we are at that stage of the 21st century when there is a lot of work to be done on connectivity. That’s why our government is constantly focusing on increasing connectivity across the country,” said the Prime Minister.
He said his government wanted to build a new India.
The Prime Minister earlier launched a slew of projects worth over Rs 4,500 crore in Baripada. This is the second visit of Modi to Odisha in less than a fortnight.
The Prime Minister dedicated the Balasore-Haldia-Durgapur section of Paradip-Haldia-Durgapur LPG Pipeline of Indian Oil Corp Ltd (IOCL) and the Balasore multi modal logistic park.
He also inaugurated doubling of Naranpur-Basantpur and Chillikidara-Sagadapata line that will connect mineral-rich Keonjhar and Jajpur districts.
The Prime Minister flagged off the second passenger train from Tatanagar to Badampahar.
Modi laid the foundation stone for four laning of 43.2 km Rimuli-Koida section of NH-215, 104.2 km Singara-Binjabahal section of NH-6 and 53.2 km Koida-Rajmunda section of NH-215.
He inaugurated passport Sewa Kendras at Bhadrak, Cuttack, Jajpur, Aska, Keonjhar and Dhenkanal.
He also inaugurated the conservation and restoration works for Rasikaray temple and the excavated structure at the ancient Haripurgarh fort.