Laying foundation stone for completion of the remaining part of North Koel Reservoir which is also known as Mandal Dam project in Palamu district of Jharkhand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday slammed the Opposition Congress led UPA obliquely saying, “today some people are misleading and cheating farmers of the country in the name of loan waive.”
“Earlier, they forced farmers to take loan and now playing politics on it…if they would have done this North Koel project, the farmers of this area would not have to take loan and plunge into poverty…they did injustice with the farmers by not caring to complete such irrigation projects,” charged Mr. Modi while addressing people in Palamu.
He further added that “my government works for the benefit of farmers, to strengthen them by completing such irrigation projects...most of them are in last stage of completion”.
“We’re spending ₹90,000 crore, or about ₹1 lakh crore for several irrigation projects in the country and if I would have to do politics I had distributed all these money among the farmers but, I chose to spend them in irrigation projects so that farmers generation would be benefitted,” added Mr. Modi.
He also cited his government’s initiatives to provide roof over heads of 1 crore 25 lakh poor people of the country by the year 2022 through Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna.
Altogether 25 thousand poor people of Palamu district too were distributed houses under PM Awas Yojna on the occasion.
“Earlier there were reign of middlemen in such welfare projects but our government has ended their role by transferring money directly to the bank account of beneficiaries…earlier, it took 18 months to complete a house, now it takes only 12 months,” said Mr. Modi.
Mr. Modi thanked Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and Jharkhand CM Raghuvar Das for taking steps to complete this project unitedly.
“Both the governments have strengthened federalism of the country through this irrigation dam,” he said.
The North Koel irrigation project would benefit farmers of Palamu and Garhwa districts of Jharkhand and neighboring Aurangabad and Gaya districts of Bihar.
“The file of the dam was prepared in 1972 with an estimated cost of ₹30 crore only but now the cost has gone up to ₹2, 400 crore and it all would put burden on people of this country…it’s been a criminal lethargy by the then government,” Mr. Modi said.
“It also shows how Bihar and Jharkhand were neglected by the previous governments,” he added further.
“Don’t you think Modi should fight against such people?,” he asked from the gathered crowd.
