Covid-19's biggest lesson is that we become self-reliant: Modi

Ravi S Singh

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 24

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday launched a unified e-GramSwaraj portal and mobile app, and Swamitva Scheme to mark the national Panchayati Raj Day before he addressed gram panchayats through video-conferencing.

He also addressed sarpanches from various parts of the country and evinced interest in the implementation of the lockdown and norms of social distancing.

Modi said the e-GramSwaraj portal would ring in transparency in Panchayti Raj governance, and facilate conceptualisation and implementation of Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP) of individual villages.

Also, it will provide a data bank of matters relating to the village panchayats on a single platform.

On the other hand, the Swamitva scheme will be implemented as a pilot project in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

“The scheme should be subsequently implemented in all villages in the country,” Modi said, adding that it sought to digitally map residential properties, identify their owners and provide them with title deeds.

“This will help reduce the friction and disputes in villages over ownerships, and empower the legal owners economically by helping them to have credit worthiness to procure loans, Modi said.

During his hour-long interface, Modi said the pandemic had taught the crucial lesson of self-reliance and resilience to overcome crisis.

He stressed that people in villages in India had blazed a trail of wisdom for the entire world through their adage: ‘Do gaaj ki doori’ (distance of two yards) in social interactions, on how to successfully fight the pandemic.

He attributed the cooperation of people to the call for the lockdown to people’s trust in government.

“A lot many things can be achieved by people’s confidence in government,” Modi said, and urged people to make use of Arogya Setu mobile app.

He urged people to follow guidelines of the Ayush Ministry regarding food implements which helped boost immune system.

He urged people not to pay heed to the misleading information about coronavirus on social media.