Covid challenge bigger than last year’s, stop it from hitting villages: Modi

New Delhi, April 24

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the Covid challenge before the country now is bigger than last year’s and called for making efforts to ensure that the infectious disease is stopped from hitting villages "by all means".

Addressing a ceremony on Panchayati Raj Diwas during which Modi launched the distribution of e-property cards under the Swamitva scheme, he said the pandemic was prevented from affecting rural areas last year and exuded confidence that the success could be replicated as local leadership now had experience as well as knowledge.

Chief ministers of eight states joined the event, held virtually, while a large number of local body representatives also connected to the ceremony.

"I have this confidence that if someone is going to emerge victorious first in this fight against the coronavirus, then it is going to be India's villages, the leadership of these villages...The people of the villages will show the way to the country and the world," the prime minister said.

Right now, the mantra of the panchayats should be ‘dawai bhi, kadai bhi’ (medicine as well as caution), he stressed.

Modi said villages should follow the guidelines issued by the government and people should also get themselves vaccinated.

To help the poor get food, his government has decided to provide them free ration for May and June, the prime minister noted, adding this would benefit over 80 crore people and cost the government Rs 26,000 crore.

As many as 4.09 lakh property owners are to be given their e-property cards. This marked the rolling out of the Swamtiva scheme for implementation across the country.

Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar attended the event.

Modi also conferred the National Panchayat Awards 2021 on the occasion.

The National Panchayat Awards 2021 were conferred under the following categories - Deen Dayal Upadhyay Panchayat Sashaktikaran Puraskar to 224 panchayats, Nanaji Deshmukh Rashtriya Gaurav Gram Sabha Puraskar to 30 gram panchayats, Gram Panchayat Development Plan Award to 29 gram panchayats, child-friendly Gram Panchayat Award to 30 Gram Panchayats and e-Panchayat Puraskar to 12 states.

The prime minister transferred the award money, ranging from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 50 lakh, as grants-in-aid, by clicking a button, the PMO said. PTI

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