PM inaugurates dev projects for farmers in Maharashtra

SHIRDI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said some people from Maharashtra only did politics in the name of farmers who had to earlier depend on middlemen to get money from sale of their produce, comments aimed at Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) founder Sharad Pawar, who handled the agriculture portfolio during the UPA government.

Modi asserted the true meaning of social justice is freedom from poverty and when the nation’s poor gets ample opportunities to grow in life.

He was speaking at an event in the temple town of Shirdi in western Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district after inaugurating several development projects and rolling out a financial assistance scheme for the state’s farmers.

“Those doing politics of vote in the name of farmers have made you yearn for every drop of water. Some people in Maharashtra only did politics in the name of farmers. A senior leader of Maharashtra served as the country’s agriculture minister. I personally respect him, but what has he done for farmers?” Modi said, without naming Pawar.

After the launch of the ‘Namo Shetkari Mahasanman Nidhi Yojana’, eligible farmers in the state will now get a total finance assistance of Rs 12,000 per year (Rs 6,000 each from the Maharashtra government and the Centre).

The PM spoke about distributing 1.10 crore Ayushman Cards to beneficiaries in Maharashtra who will receive health cover up to Rs 5 lakh for which the central government is spending Rs 70,000 crore.

Modi touched upon the newly-launched PM Vishwakarma Yojana which aids lakhs of families of carpenters, goldsmiths, potters and sculptors with the central government earmarking more than Rs 13,000 crore for the scheme.

Modi said his government is working to strengthen the cooperative movement and added Earlier in the day, Modi performed pooja at the Shri Saibaba Samadhi Temple in Shirdi.

Among other projects, Modi inaugurated the new ‘Darshan Queue’ complex at Shirdi.

It is a state-of-the-art building envisaged to provide comfortable waiting areas

for devotees visiting the

Saibaba Temple.