Govt working to make farmers, villages self-reliant, says PM Modi

New Delhi, Jun 18: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said the government is working with a vision to make farmers and villages self-reliant and prosperous. Speaking to a group of 150 sugarcane farmers from Uttar Pradesh, he said the Centre had taken a number of steps with this vision in mind.

The farmers called on him at his Race Course residence here today evening to thank him for the Centre's decision to provide Rs 6,000 crore to sugarcane farmers and also for other recent pro-farmer steps taken for the sugar sector.

The Prime Minister explained at length how his government is working to provide 24x7 power to all villages and how this will change lives of rural people and provide an opportunity to them for value addition of their crops.

The Prime Minister said that government's decision to provide soil health cards to all farmers would help them reduce input costs and improve productivity. Micro-irrigation would also help the farmer produce more crops per drop, he said.

Modi explained the benefits of the financial inclusion and social security schemes launched by his government.

He said direct transfer of benefits would eliminate leakages and middlemen from the system so that the entire financial assistance that is sanctioned for farmers is delivered to them.

The Prime Minister also explained how the government's decision to fix the support price of ethanol and on ethanol-blending would help sugarcane farmers.

The farmers also felicitated him for the recent steps taken by the government for their welfare. Among the farmers who spoke include Vijaypal Tomar, Chaudhary Udham Singh and Harendra Singh.

BJP president Amit Shah, Union Minister of State for Agriculture Sanjeev Balyan, UP state BJP president Laxmikant Bajpayee and BJP UP unit organising secretary Sunil Bansal were present.

PTI