Balrampur (UP): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday exhorted farmers to adopt natural farming saying it will help not only save water but also produce better crops, and invited them to join a mega programme on it on December 16 as it would prove beneficial for them.
He was addressing a rally in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh's Balrampur after inaugurating the Saryu Canal National Project, which will provide assured water for irrigation to over 14 lakh hectares of land and benefit about 29 lakh farmers.
It is worth mentioning that the project had been pending since 1972 when it was first approved.
The Prime Minister remarked: "When the project was launched five decades ago, its cost was less than Rs 100 crore and on completion, the total cost of the project is around Rs 10,000 crore. This huge difference in the cost of the project is the result of neglect by previous governments. Had it been completed earlier, its cost would have been far less with less burden on people, while farmers would have started benefitting from it already, filling the state's coffers."
He added: "We are making every effort to ensure that every piece of land gets water and inadequacy of water does not hamper the growth of the state. The interlinking of the five rivers, namely Ghaghra, Saryu, Rapti, Banganga and Rohin will ensure that there is no shortage of water in the nine districts for irrigation purposes."
The nine districts to benefit from the Rs 9,802 crore Saryu Canal National Project are Bahraich, Shravasti, Balrampur, Gonda, Siddharthnagar, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Gorakhpur and Maharajganj.
Modi said a big event on natural farming is being organised on December 16 and requested farmers across the country to connect either through TV or Krishi Vigyan Kendras.
Noting that one Subhashji of Maharashtra has initiated the idea of zero budget natural farming, he said it saves earth and water and the crop produced through it is also better.
The Prime Minister also took a jibe at Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav who has often claimed that the works of his government are being projected as the achievements of the BJP government, saying that he was waiting if anyone will claim the credit for the Saryu Canal National Project. "When I started from Delhi, I was waiting for someone to say that he had cut the ribbon of this project and started this scheme. This is the habit of some people, maybe in their childhood they had cut its ribbon," he said, without taking any names.
"For some people cutting ribbon is the priority while for us completing schemes in time is the priority. In 2014 when I came to power, I was amazed to see that 99 irrigation projects were lying (incomplete) for decades in the country," he said.
Speaking about the unnecessary delay in the Saryu Canal National Project, the Prime Minister said: "Most painful is the waste and misuse of the country's money, time and resources and its humiliation. This thinking is the biggest hurdle in the balanced development of the country and this thinking has also stalled the Saryu Nahar project."
PM Modi said that the style of functioning of the Yogi government is quite different from the previous governments. "The previous governments helped mafias encroach properties while today's Yogi government fines them and bulldozes their illegal assets. During earlier regimes, women and girls hid themselves inside their houses for security whereas today criminals are taking refuge in jails for fear of state machinery. That's why people say: "Fark to saaf hai (the difference is clear)."
Mentioning the Central government's schemes, Modi informed that 30 lakh people in UP have got houses under the PM Awas Yojana, adding that an additional Rs 2 lakh crore has been sanctioned to provide houses to more and more people under the initiative.
He said that the UP government was also providing ownership papers to rightful owners of properties under Swamitva Yojana, pointing out that special attention was being given to provide ownership papers to women in order to protect their interests.
Paying his glowing tributes to former Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat on his tragic demise in an aircrash, Modi said that he would be watching India grow with pride from heaven.
Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that his government has completed at least 17 of the 18 agricultural projects that had been pending for decades in the last four-and-a-half years while work is underway on the 18th, the Madhya Ganga Project.
Yogi said that the government has ensured irrigation facility for a total of 22 lakh hectares of land during the period. Thanking the Prime Minister for his unique initiative to support farmers through commissioning of the Saryu Canal National Project, he said that more than half of the work on the project has been done in the last four-and-a-half-years.
He said: "I was born in the year 1972 when the project was approved. However, the project could not be completed even after several decades. It's after Modi took the initiative to complete 100 such projects, which would have far-reaching impact on lives of common people, that work was started on war-footing on these projects."
Yogi said the enhanced irrigation facility will not only boost agricultural productivity and thereby prosperity for Purvanchal, doubling farmers' income as per the PM's wish, but also help stop migration of youth from the region for jobs.
Yogi said that the interlinking of rivers such as Ghaghra and Saryu will also help to develop neighbouring areas as tourist spots with an increase in natural beauty of the places.
The Saryu Canal National Project will facilitate irrigation of about 15 lakh (14.04 lakh) hectares of arable land while offering a permanent solution to the problem of floods in certain areas of Purvanchal by linking main and tributary canals to the barrages built on rivers Ghaghra, Saryu, Rapti, Banganga and Rohin. The barrages are called Girija, Saryu, Rapti, and Banganga.