The Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi addressed the ‘Garib Kalyan Sammelan’ in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh today. This unique public event was organized in state capitals, district headquarters and Krishi Vigyan Kendras across the country to commemorate the completion of eight years of the government led by Prime Minister Modi. The idea behind this programme was to enable the elected public representatives across the country to interact directly with the public to get feedback about the various welfare programmes being run by the government.
On the occasion, the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi also released the 11th instalment of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) scheme. An amount of over Rs. 21,000 crores was transferred to more than 10 crore beneficiary farmer families. The Prime Minister also interacted with the beneficiaries of various government welfare schemes across the country.
Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar and Minister of Commerce and Industry, Textiles, Food & Consumer Affairs, and Public Distribution, Shri Piyush Goyal participated in the programme from Delhi, in which a large number of farmers besides agricultural scientists were present. Speaking on the occasion, Shri Tomar said there was a time when India’s stature was not recognized in international fora, but today with Modi ji, 140 crore people of the country have been empowered. Modi ji has shown that power on the world political stage in a way that no political platform on earth can ignore India. We all can surely feel proud of his 8 years journey. As far as the rural population, poor people and farmers are concerned, everyone knows very well that the government has always been dedicated towards these sections. There was a time when there was a great need for infrastructure in the villages, it took weeks and weeks to travel from one village to another. When Atal ji became the Prime Minister, he launched the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana, but could not complete the task. Today Prime Minister Shri Modi has taken the same work forward rapidly and lakhs of roads have been built in the villages, efforts are being made to connect the villages with towns. Last year the budget on the roads sector was Rs 15,000 crore and this time the Prime Minister has allocated a budget of Rs.19,000 crore for the village roads.
Shri Tomar said that today the poor people living in urban and rural areas are getting to stay under their own roof, work is going on across the whole country under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. Not only this, but toilet, kitchen and electricity connection are also provided. Good work has been done in these 8 years due to Modi ji’s efforts by eradicating inequality towards the poor, which has definitely improved the standard of living of the common man, and the welfare of the farmers also took place.
The Agriculture Minister said that in the field of agriculture, concrete work has been done to raise the production and productivity of farmers, promoting use of technology and to ensure that farmers should get reasonable price for their crop. Earlier, wheat and rice were procured at MSP, Modi ji also started procurement of other farm produce including coarse grains. PM wants that farmers should move forward, their income should be doubled and that farmers adopt crop diversification, use of fertilizers and water is limited, the cost of farming should also come down, hence a campaign has been launched and crores of farmers are getting benefitted. On one hand, the Prime Minister has emphasized on organic farming, by aiming to get 38 lakh hectare area under organic farming. This time we achieved exports of Rs.3.75 lakh crore, this too is a result of the farmers’ toil. Prime Minister has also emphasized on natural farming. During course of time, we should reduce dependence on chemical fertilizers, promote natural farming, produce healthy food, so that people remain healthy and our production can also fetch a good price and the quality of production should be such that it meets global standards. With this point of view, we all have to move forward in the field of agriculture, he said.
The programme in Delhi was also attended by Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra, Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research and Dy DG, Dr. A.K. Singh. Dr. Ashok Kumar Singh, Director, Indian Agricultural Research Institute proposed the vote of thanks.
