Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Seenchayi Yojana to meet the irrigation needs of all farmers across the country. This announcement came after he laid the foundation stone for the four-laning of a 166 km stretch of the Kaithal-Siwani national highway in Haryana.
Mr. Modi’s visit to poll-bound Haryana comes close on the heels of two public meetings in Haryana by BJP president Amit Shah. The BJP, which won seven of the ten Lok Sabha seats in Haryana, is for the first time aiming to form the government on its own in the State. The crowds cheered loudly at the PM’s speech particularly when he referred to corruption and sought the people’s support to eradicate it. Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who also spoke on the occasion, was booed down by the crowd.
Mr. Modi said his government would clear all the pending Central projects for Haryana and get them implemented at the earliest.
Mr. Hooda urged Mr. Modi to do away with the system of expensive toll charges on national highways and to replace it with a one time payment on purchase of a vehicle.
Mr. Hooda, lashed out at the BJP, accusing the party of converting an official function of the prime minister into a political rally. He described it as a planned conspiracy and said: “If the BJP continues to behave in this manner, I will not attend any such function of the Prime Minister in future.”
