Prime Minister Narendra Modi today invoked the welfare of farmers' children to justify the Land Bill as he maintained that efforts are being made to "mislead" the farming community over the new measure.
Pitching for the proposed new legislation that is facing stiff resistance from almost all opposition parties, he said it is necessary to bring about development which will benefit the farmers and their families as well.
"Efforts are being made to mislead farmers in various ways. I talked about it yesterday also in my 'Mann Ki Baat' programme," Modi said addressing an event here organised in the memory of freedom fighters Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru on their martyrdom day.
He said if the nation makes progress, it will benefit the farmers as well as their future generations, many of whom want employment in areas other than farming.
"If there is no development, what will happen to your children? Do you want them to live in 'jhuggi jhopris' (slums) of Delhi and Mumbai? Development will bring benefits for the farmer, their children as well as their villages," the Prime Minister said.
The controversial Bill was passed by Lok Sabha earlier this month but has got stuck in Rajya Sabha because of a united opposition which has stepped up its campaign against the measure.
Talking about corruption, he said it had "destroyed" the country. Targeting the previous UPA government, he said that the coal-block allocation scam was "bigger" than assessed by the CAG. He said that the CAG's assessment of the loss in the coal-block allocation scam was much less than what it actually was.
When the CAG concluded that the loss was to the tune of Rs 1.86 lakh crore, there was "disbelief about such a huge figure".
"There was also a 'zero loss theory'," he said targeting the previous UPA ministers who had contended so.
