BJP plans to woo farmers in eastern UP
Party has launched a campaign on social media, as well as in rural areas, terming the project a major achievement of its double engine govt at Centre and in state
LUCKNOW: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) plans to woo farmers in eastern Uttar Pradesh with inauguration of the Saryu Canal National Project by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Balrampur on Saturday (December 11).
On the eve of the inauguration, the BJP launched a massive campaign on social media, as well as in the rural areas of eastern UP, terming the project a major achievement of the party’s double engine government at the Centre and in the state. Party leaders mobilised the cadre to make the inauguration programme successful.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath said the 6,623-kilometrelong canal system will benefit the farmers in nine districts of eastern UP — Bahraich, Shravasti, Gonda, Balrampur, Siddharthnagar, Basti, Sant Kabirnagar, Gorakhpur and Maharajganj. The canal project will give boost to the agriculture sector in eastern Uttar Pradesh and be an important milestone in the BJP government’s pledge to double the income of the farmers by 2022, he said.
Terming the Saryu canal a major gift to the farmers in eastern UP, a BJP leader said it showed the commitment of the party’s governments at the Centre and in the state to the welfare of farmers.
When the Prime Minister inaugurates the Saryu Canal National Project on Saturday, protesting farmers will be returning to their villages from Delhi border after the farmers’ unions called off their yearlong agitation, he said. It shows the farmers’ trust in the BJP government, he claimed.
Uttar Pradesh Jal Shakti minister Mahendra Singh said the Saryu Canal National Project will benefit 30 lakh (three million) farmers in eastern UP as the ₹9,802-crore canal will irrigate 15 lakh hectare land in 6,227 villages.
Under this project, five rivers have been connected, including the Ghaghra, Saryu, Rapti, Banganga
and the Rohini. The sub canals with a length of 6,600 km have been linked to the 318-km main canal.
The canal system is an excellent example of the river-linking project launched by the BJP government at the Centre, he said. It will also protect the districts of eastern UP from recurrent floods, the minister said.
The Saryu canal project was planned in 1972, but the work on the project started in 1978. Initially, the project was limited to three districts of Devipatan division but expanded to nine districts in 1982.
The previous governments completed 52% of the work on the project in four decades whereas the double engine BJP government completed the remaining 48% of the work in four years after the formation of the BJP government in UP in 2017, he said.
On Wednesday, the Union cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved funding and implementation of the Ken- Betwa inter-linking rivers project that will benefit farmers in four districts Jhansi, Mahoba, Banda and Lalitpur in Bundelkhand of Uttar Pradesh, along with the nine districts of the same region Madhya Pradesh.