Priority on agricultural infrastructure: PM Modi reaches out to UP farmers

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday reached out to the farmers in Jat area of western Uttar Pradesh, which had witnessed widespread protests over the now-abolished central farm laws.

Addressing a public meeting after laying the foundation of Rs 700-crore Major Dhyan Chand Sports University in Meerut, Modi said the Centre had allocated Rs 1 trillion towards ramping up agricultural infrastructure, storage houses, and cold chain network to benefit small farmers.

“We have accorded priority to improving the farm infrastructure and promoting food processing industries,” he said, stressing that the ‘double engine’ government would ensure the development of the entire western UP and the youth of the region.

Since Western UP is also known as the sugar bowl due to the extensive cane cultivation, Modi flayed the previous governments for delayed and staggered payments pertaining to the cash crop.

“Under the Yogi (Adityanath) government, the total payments made so far is more than the combined payout to the cane farmers during the previous two regimes in the state,” he underlined.

The PM alleged the UP sugar mills were earlier sold at throwaway prices, however, new mills were being set up and closed ones revived by the current government.

“UP is taking big strides in the production of ethanol made from sugarcane. In the last four and half years, ethanol worth Rs  12,000 crore has been procured from UP alone,” he said, adding Meerut had played a significant role in the country’s freedom movement.

He maintained the government was taking steps to facilitate the setting up of big industries in UP and create new markets for farm produce.

Meanwhile, Modi invoked the youth power to put India on the path of speedy economic growth.

“The country’s youth is making a global mark in both the sports and startup fields. The path that India will take will guide the world to tread the same path and youth have to take the lead in this regard,” he noted.

He said the sports university would be developed as one of the finest universities in the world. It would churn out more than 1,000 sports professionals every year.

Modi hit out at the opposition parties for indulging in nefarious games in UP during regimes. “Earlier, criminals and mafias were playing their game and eve-teasing was blatant in the state, while the government of the day was itself busy in its own game of corruption. The people were forced to flee from their ancestral houses.”

However, the Adityanath government had put the criminals behind bars and the youth of UP were getting ample opportunities to excel in sports and to make sports a viable career too, he said and attacked the previous governments for their alleged apathy towards sportspersons.