Eagerly looking forward to UP visit on Saturday: PM Narendra Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said he is eagerly looking forward to being with his "sisters and brothers of Uttar Pradesh" on Saturday where he will attend several programmes in Chitrakoot and Prayagraj.

"There will be programmes in Prayagraj and Chitrakoot which would focus on empowerment of divyangjan (people with disabilities), infrastructure, farmer welfare and more," he said on Saturday.

He said he is delighted to be laying the foundation stone of the Bundelkhand Expressway at Chitrakoot.

"This expressway will be the harbinger of progress for youngsters in the region and will also help the Defence Corridor coming up in the state... Next-gen infrastructure for a better tomorrow," Modi said in a series of tweets.

The Samajik Adhikarta Shivir at Prayagraj will be among the biggest such camps for senior citizens and people with disabilities. Assistive aids and devices would distributed. "It is a part of our efforts to ensure a better quality of living for them," he said.

A statement from the Prime Minister's Office said on Friday that to mark one year of the PM-Kisan scheme, Modi will launch 10,000 Farmers Producer Organisations all over the country at Chitrakoot on Saturday.

Nearly 86 per cent of farmers are small and marginal with average land holdings in the country being less than 1.1 hectare.

"These small, marginal and landless farmers face tremendous challenges during agriculture production phase such as for access to technology, quality seed, fertilisers and pesticides including requisite finances. They also face tremendous challenges in marketing their produce due to lack of economic strength," the statement pointed out.

FPOs help in collectivization of such small, marginal and landless farmers in order to give them the collective strength to deal with such issues. Members of the FPO will manage their activities together in the organisation to get better access to technology, input, finance and market for faster enhancement of their income, it said.

The event will also witness the completion of one year of the launch of PM-KISAN scheme.

The Modi government has launched the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme as an income support scheme for farmers to enable them to take care of expenses related to agriculture and allied activities as well as domestic needs.

Under the scheme, benefit is provided to the eligible beneficiary to the tune of Rs 6,000 per year.

It is payable in three 4-monthly instalments of Rs 2,000 each.

The scheme was launched on February 24, 2019.

The prime minister will also be launching a saturation drive for distribution of Kisan Credit Cards (KCC) to all the beneficiaries under the PM-KISAN Scheme at the event.

Over 6.5 crore of the approximately 8.5 crore beneficiaries under PM-KISAN Scheme possess Kisan Credit Cards.

The saturation drive will ensure that the remaining about 2 crore PM-KISAN beneficiaries are also distributed KCCs the statement said.

A 15-day special drive has been launched from February 12 to 26 to provide access to concessional institutional credit to all the PM-KISAN beneficiaries wherein a simple one page form has to be filled with the basic data including bank account number, land record details and a simple declaration that he is presently not a beneficiary of KCC from any other bank branch.

All the PM-KISAN beneficiaries whose applications are received till 26 February will be called to the respective bank branches on Saturday for handing over KCCs.