In Varanasi, PM Modi launches Rs 2K-cr projects

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 23

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today inaugurated and laid foundation stones of 27 projects worth Rs 2,095 crore, including the Rs 475-crore Banas Dairy Sankul at Karkhiyaon, in his Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi.

Cow sacred for us

Talking about cow and ‘gobardhan’ (cow dung) has been made a matter of ‘gunah’ (sin) by some people. Cow can be a sin for some people, for us it is mother, sacred. — Narendra Modi, Prime Minister

He also took a swipe at Opposition parties, saying those making jokes on cows and buffaloes forget that livelihood of crores of people depends on “pashudhan” (livestock). In an apparent attack on the main rival Samajwadi Party, PM Modi said their mindset contained ‘mafiavad’, ‘parivarvad’ and illegal occupation of property whereas for the BJP the priority was ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’.

Paying tribute to former PM Chaudhary Charan Singh, a top Jat leader from western UP, on his birth anniversary today, he said Charan Singh devoted his entire life for development of villages and farmers in the country.

On an inauguration spree ahead of the high-stake elections next year, this is PM Modi’s second visit to his constituency in the past 10 days. A frequent visitor to the poll-bound UP in the past two months, especially the purvanchal or the eastern region, the PM was here on December 13 to inaugurate the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor.

Doing well in Purvanchal, in specific, is important for it to return to power. The home turf of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is also a bastion of Samajwadi Party.

Meanwhile, the PM said strengthening India’s dairy sector was one of the top priorities of the government. He also lauded the people of UP for making it the largest milk-producing state in the country.

Spread across 30 acres, Banas Dairy Sankul would process about 5 lakh litre milk a day and strengthen the rural economy, officials said.

The PM also digitally transferred a bonus into bank accounts of milk producers associated with the Banas dairy and laid the foundation stone for a biogas-based electricity generation plant for a Milk Producers’ Cooperative Union facility.

He also virtually distributed rural residential rights record ‘Gharauni’ under the Swamitva scheme of the Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj, to over 20 lakh residents of the state. This, he said, would open new vistas of development and dignity for rural poor and would make them part of the development story.

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