Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday wrapped up a two-day tour of Uttar Pradesh by blaming previous governments for leaving behind ‘incomplete’ development projects and stalling progress of farmers and the poor.
The people of Uttar Pradesh, especially Purvanchal, paid the price for the ‘sins’ of the previous governments, Mr. Modi said, accusing them of wasting public money through increased cost of projects due to decades of delay.
Though he did not name any party or leader, it was clear he was referring to the Congress. It was only after the BJP came to power that old projects saw movement, he said.
“You must ask those shedding crocodile tears for farmers these days, why during their regimes they did not notice these incomplete irrigation projects across the country,” Mr. Modi said in Mirzapur district.
He made the comments after dedicating the Bansagar Canal project in Mirzapur to the nation. Over 1.5 lakh hectares around Mirzapur and Allahabad will benefit.
Referring to the Bansagar project, Mr. Modi said while it was conceptualised and its foundation stone laid four decades ago, it was delayed to the extent that what could have been completed under ₹300 crore, cost a massive ₹3,500 crore today.
Successive governments in the past only delivered ‘promises’ in the name of the project, Mr. Modi said, adding that efforts were made to complete Bansagar only after 2014 when it was made a part of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana by his government.
“Had this project been completed earlier, the benefit you are going to get now, you would have got two decades ago,” Mr. Modi said.
The PM said that like the Bansagar project there were several others across the country that were kept ‘atke, latke and bhatke’ (stuck, hanging and stray) by previous regimes.
His speech was also laced with references to the work done by his government for the farmers, in particular the increase in MSP for kharif crops.
While referring to an international report, Mr. Modi said that in the last two years five crore people in India had wriggled out of severe poverty. He credited his development and welfare schemes for it. The government is “reducing the expenses and worry” of the poor, he said.
In Mirzapur, Mr. Modi inaugurated or laid the foundation of projects worth a total of ₹4,000 crore. This included a bridge over the Ganga in Chunar and a medical college. Mirzapur adjoins Varanasi and is the centre of the politics of the Apna Dal, the BJP’s ally in the NDA.
This came a day after he laid the foundation stone of the 341-km Purvanchal Expressway, being built at a cost of over ₹23,000 crore, in Azamgarh, followed by dedicating and starting projects worth ₹900 crore in Varanasi, his Lok Sabha constituency.
Opposition parties have claimed that Mr. Modi is inaugurating and launching projects in a hurry in U.P. with an eye on the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
