Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday released funds to the tune of Rs 20,900 crore under PM-KISAN Yojana and utilised the occasion to issue a report card of his government's achievements in an election year and reach out to farmers in the backdrop of a one-year-long farmer agitation that ended last month.
From seeking to give a message of confidence on fighting Covid-19 amid the surging new variant Omicron, Modi in his speech talked at length about the 'consistency" in his government policies, the growth rate of economy and strengthening the cultural heritage with moves on the Ram Mandir, Kashi Vishwanath temple and Kedarnath Dham.
Modi's address through video conferencing was attended by nine chief ministers and a number of ministers from different states. He also interacted with farmers across the countrym including from poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, which has been one of the epicentres of the year-long farm protest. He made a big pitch for natural farming, telling the farmers that it is in their interest and there is a lot of demand for such products in the international market.
He released the amount to more than 10.09 crore farmers as the 10th installment of financial aid under the scheme under which a financial benefit of Rs 6,000 per year is given to eligible farmer families in three equal installments. Modi, who also released an equity grant of more than Rs 14 crore to about 351 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), benefiting 1.24 lakh farmers, held a conversation with the beneficiaries. They included farmers from poll-bound UP, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Gujarat. He said that FPO's "small farmers" are feeling the power of collective strength. He pointed out five benefits of FPOs for small farmers. The government has in the past maintained that the farmer agitation had nothing to do with small farmers having less than two acres of land.
"Today, our farmers are benefitting from the schemes like ‘One District One Products’ and markets, both nation and global, are opening for them," he said, projecting a number of initiatives started by the central government with relation to the farm sector. "Confidence of the country’s farmers is the key strength of the country” he said. FPO from Gujarat talked about natural farming and how cow-based agriculture can reduce the expense and stress on soil. Modi talked about "milestones" achieved in the agriculture sector in the recent years.
Modi said 2021 was also the year of strengthening India’s cultural heritage. He listed moves like beautification and development of Kashi Vishwanath Dham and Kedarnath Dham, Renovation of Samadhi of Aadi Shankaracharya, restoration of stolen idol of goddess Annapoorna, construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya and getting World Heritage status for Dholavira and Durga Puja festival as steps that are strengthening India’s heritage and enhancing its tourism and pilgrimage potential.
Modi said on many parameters, the Indian economy is looking better than pre-Covid days. He pointed out that “today the growth rate of our economy is more than 8%. Record foreign investment has come to India. Our forex reserves have reached record levels. Old records have also been surpassed in GST collection. We have also set new records in the matter of exports, especially in agriculture.”
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