SHUN PROPERTY DAMAGE AS A TACTIC OF RESISTANCE: PM
PRAYAGRAJ: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday exhorted the masses to keep in mind their national duties and responsibilities while exercising their democratic right to protest. Hitting out at those who smashed, burned or otherwise vandalized vital infrastructure of the country (like trains and railways tracks) during protests and agitations, Modi said that such people should remember infrastructure did not belong to any political leader, party or government but to the entire country and its people.
PRAYAGRAJ: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday exhorted the masses to keep in mind their national duties and responsibilities while exercising their democratic right to protest.
Hitting out at those who smashed, burned or otherwise vandalized vital infrastructure of the country (like trains and railways tracks) during protests and agitations, Modi said that such people should remember infrastructure did not belong to any political leader, party or government but to the entire country and its people.
Speaking at a function organised to virtually inaugurate the New Bhaupur-New Khurja section of the eastern dedicated freight corridor (EDFC) as well as EDFC’s high-tech operation control centre (OCC) set up at Prayagraj, the PM reminded that the properties the protestors often damaged belonged to citizens. The money used for creating the infrastructure came from taxpayers from all sections of society. Every attack on such infrastructure was an assault on the common man and the poor, Modi said.
The PM’s comments came at a time when farmers’ protests over the recently passed farm laws are going on in various parts of the country, including Punjab, from where reports of mobile phone towers being damaged have also surfaced.
Hailing the new dedicated freight corridor as the biggest infrastructure project of the country that would benefit traders, farmers and consumers by reducing costs and facilitating transport of double stack containers, the PM also came down hard on the Congress-led UPA government for the delay in the DFC project. The project that was sanctioned in 2006 remained confined to files for eight years, with not even 1km of rail tracks being laid. “When we came to power in 2014, we began work on it again despite the budget of the project now having increased 11 times to over Rs 45,000 crore owing to the delay. However, now within seven years, we will soon have 1100 km of DFC tracks for carriage trains that would ensure they can run at three times the old speed and carry two times load capacity by being able to support doubledecker wagons,” the PM said.
Modi said that going by past experiences, infrastructure development of the country should be kept away from politics. Infrastructure projects were not part of any political ideology but the road to development and for the benefit of the forthcoming generations, he said.
UP governor Anandiben Patel, chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Union railway minister Piyush Goyal along with local MPs Rita Bahuguna Joshi (Prayagraj) and Keshari Devi Patel (Phulpur) were also present online.
During the ceremony, the PM also flagged off the country’s first 1.5 km long haul goods train from New Bhaupur to New Khurja. UP CM Yogi Adityanath and Union railway minister Piyush Goyal both thanked the PM for his personal intervention in ensuring fast progress of the DFC project and expressed confidence that it would usher in development and progress in all states and cities, including those of UP, through which it passed.
CM Yogi said work of about 6,000 new lines, gauge conversion and doubling projects was in progress in UP. “With the formation of this freight corridor, there will be ease in carrying and transporting stuff. The formation of this corridor is very important for a landlocked state like UP, he added.