PM inaugurates Saryu canal project in UP, slams previous govts for ‘delay’
LUCKNOW: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday inaugurated the Saryu Canal National Project in poll-bound eastern Uttar Pradesh’s Balrampur district and hit out at the previous governments in the state for “delaying projects” and “wasting public money”.
The PM was addressing a rally in Balrampur after inaugurating the ₹9,800-crore project, aimed at providing assured water for irrigation to over 1.4 million hectares and benefit about 2.9 million farmers.
“Most painful is the waste and misuse of the country’s money, time and resources and its humiliation. This thinking is the biggest hurdle in the balanced development of the country and this thinking has also stalled the Saryu Nahar project. All the citizens of the country should understand that when the work on this project was started its cost was under ₹100 crore and now it is about ₹10,000 crore. This money was your hardearned money,” the prime minister told the gathering.
“We never forget anyone who offers water to quench people’s thirst and I am sure that now that your parched fields will get water, your blessings will help us work with greater enthusiasm.”
Taking a jibe at Samajwadi Party (SP) president and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav — who has often claimed that the development works started by his government were being projected as the achievements of the Bharatiya Janata Party (Bjp)-led government in UP — Modi said he was waiting if anyone would claim the credit for the project.
“When I started from Delhi, I was waiting for someone to say that he had cut the ribbon of this project and started this scheme. This is the habit of some people, maybe in their childhood they had cut its ribbon,” he said, without taking any names.
“For some people cutting ribbon is the priority while for us completing schemes in time is the priority. In 2014 when I came to power, I was amazed to see that 99 irrigation projects were lying (incomplete) for decades in the country,” Modi added.
Modi’s remark came hours after Akhilesh Yadav attacked the BJP governments at the Centre and in the state for “taking credit” for other’s work. “Three-fourth of the Saryu canal project was completed during the SP regime and it took the BJP government in the state five years to finish the remainder of work. In 2022, the SP era will return and the state will prosper with canals of development,” Yadav tweeted in Hindi.
As part of the Saryu canal irrigation project, five rivers — Ghaghara, Saryu, Rapti, Banganga and Rohini — and 900 tributaries have been interlinked. The project aims at helping farmers in 6,200 villages of nine eastern UP districts — Bahraich, Shravasti, Balrampur, Gonda, Siddharthnagar, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Gorakhpur and Maharajganj.
Reiterating his party’s ‘soch imaandar, kaam damdaar’ (honest intentions and great work) election pitch in UP, which will go to polls in February-march next year, Modi highlighted the importance of “double engine” government (same party in power at the Centre and in the state). Speaking about the ₹44,605 crore Ken-betwa river-linking project, Modi said it would help address the water crisis in Bundelkhand.
In his speech, Modi referred to Yogi Adityanath as an “energetic, dedicated and popular” chief minister, and said that previous governments used to protect mafia, but the Yogi government is carrying out a campaign to clear the state of mafia and people are saying “farq saaf hai” (difference is clear). “Daughters of UP used to think twice before moving out of their homes earlier. Now criminals think twice before committing a crime...”