Mandla: Addressing a tribal convention in Madhya Pradesh’s Mandla district on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called upon the panchayat office bearers to empower the rural economy to ensure welfare of rural population with a five-year roadmap.
PM Modi launched the Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan aimed at bringing transparency and honesty in developmental work in rural areas. The Prime Minister also tried striking a chord with tribal voters of the poll-bound state by announcing a museum underlining the contribution of freedom fighters from tribal community in every state.
“When it comes to rural development, budgets are important. But, there is a shift in the discourse in last few years. People are now talking about the need to ensure that money allocated for a project is utilised and done in a transparent manner. The budget of the country today is for the welfare of all, we are continuously working for the development of villages,” said the PM addressing the Adi Utsav at Ramnagar, in the tribal belt of Mahakaushal region in MP.
Hinting at growing chemical farming in the country, the Prime Minister urged farmers to take collective decisions to reduce usage of fertilisers so that soil degradation could be checked. He also referred to Centre’s decision of putting bamboo in the category of grass so that the rural population could earn livelihood without legal troubles. The PM encouraged farmers to grow bamboos on farmland boundaries for earning alternate livelihood.
“Today, the amount of budget is not a worry; it is about its honest implementation for the right beneficiaries,” said PM Modi.
He also indirectly blamed the Congress rule for not doing enough for the villages. “Our parents would have been unfortunate to not get enough opportunities for education but we should make sure no kid is left outside schools in our villages. We could see 40-50 years old people affected by polio but our panchayats should make sure no kid is excluded from the pulse polio drive,” he said.
Amid sharp criticism for his government over implementation of MGNREGS, PM Modi called upon panchayats to take upon water conservation works for next three months under this scheme to do away with water scarcity in villages.
Amid the raging debate on falling farm prices in India, the PM urged farmers to embrace zero budget agriculture.
He underlined importance of Jan Dhan, Van Dhan and Gobar Dhan for rural economy and urged panchayat office bearers to work for empowerment of rural sector till 2022. “This period should be remembered as Golden Era of Panchayat Raj,” said Modi.
He further asked panchayat office bearers to take things into their own hands and not wait for government staff to do things for villages. “It’s time for realising the Gram Swaraj dream of Mahatma Gandhi.”
The PM tried to strike a chord with the tribal voters. Alleging that the tale of Indian freedom struggle only revolves around certain families and personalities, PM Modi underlined the contribution of ethnic people including Rani Durgawati, Avantibai and Birsa Munda. The leader announced that every state, where personalities from tribes contributed to freedom struggle, would get modern museums so that young generation could be apprised about their glorious contribution to the freedom of India.
One such museum would come up in MP soon, he added.
The Prime Minister also tried connecting to local masses while referring to Centre’s recent ordinance provisioning death for rapists of minor girls. “The loud cheers from the audience indicate that they are acknowledging the fact that they have a government in New Delhi listens to them and works accordingly,” he said.
Four panchayat office bearers were also felicitated by the Prime Minister. The awards were: Amarwati Vathia sarpanch for ensuing smokeless chulha all Mandla village households, Chulli Baiaga sarpanch for ensuring 100% vaccination in Shahdo village, Radhabai Dhruve sarpanch for ensuring 100% electrification in her village in Mandla and Nanhibai Marco was given a Rs 2 lakh sanction letter under Jeevan Jyoti Yojana on her husband’s death.
The Prime Minister digitally inaugurated a LPG bottling plant to be built in Maneri village of Mandla for fulfilling LPG requirement in the region under Ujjawala scheme.
He felicitated Panchayats of various states for excellence in IT and other endeavours.
CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan on the occasion lauded PM Modi for his dream project of providing houses to every rural family by 2022 claiming that the Centre would spend Rs two lakh crore in next five years for developing tribal areas.
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