Modi stresses on sports, Buddha monument in Gujarat

The Modi government plans to launch ‘Khele India’ on the lines of the Khel Mahakumbh of Gujarat.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was speaking on Friday at the launch of a Rs 525-crore sports stadium at Maninagar, the constituency he represented in the state Assembly as chief minister.

When he was the chief minister of Gujarat, Modi had begun the initiative of ‘Khel Mahakumbh’, an annual mega sporting event, to promote sports in Gujarat.

“We have such strength that India would do great in Olympics. What sportspersons need is the support of family and society. They need opportunities. We have to create infrastructure and the governments and corporates need to come forward,” the prime minister said. “Let’s begin a movement in our country to make sports an integral part of our lives.”

The prime minister had a busy schedule on the second day of his two-day visit to the state. Modi began his day at Modasa in Aravalli district by inaugurating the Rs 552-crore Narmada project-based water supply scheme for 608 villages in the North Gujarat region.

Speaking at the function, the prime minister said the Gujarat model of development was being discussed in great detail as the BJP governments in the state and the Centre had focused on a holistic approach towards development, finding permanent solutions to the problems.

“Our governments stopped the uncessasary digging up of earth done as part of relief work during droughts to draw electoral mileage,” he said.

He said his government had ensured that farmers across the state were receiving water through various irrigation schemes. He spoke about the Sujalam Sufalam Yojana water project in the North Gujarat region to harness as much as one million acre-feet of water overflowing from the Narmada project.

The prime minister also referred to his intention of building a grand monument for the Buddha in the region. “There was a general notion that Lord Buddha was popular in the eastern belt of the country. But the excavation at Dev ni Mori near Shamlaji temple some time back has established that Buddha’s influence had reached the western belt, too,” he said.