Haryana golden jubilee: PM Modi launches 3 schemes, declares 7

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched three schemes for Haryana, declared seven rural districts of the state open defecation free and eight as kerosene free as he inaugurated the year-long golden jubilee celebrations of its formation.

Addressing a huge gathering at the Tau Devi Lal stadium here, he also lauded the steps taken by Haryana towards improving the adverse sex ratio and called upon the people of the state to take a pledge to protect the girl child.

Haryana was carved out as a separate state from the then joint Punjab on November 1, 1966.

On protecting the girl child, Modi said: "This golden jubilee year, every Haryanvi should take a pledge to save the girl child and there should be no let up in this regard and the girl child will not be allowed to be killed in the mother's womb.There cannot be a bigger occasion for golden jubilee than this."

He also thanked the elders and mothers of Haryana who took upon themselves to protect the girl child and helped in improving the sex ratio.

"I want to commend people of Haryana that they respected the sentiment when I had begged for saving lives of girls when I launched Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao campaign (from Panipat in January 2015).

"Today, I can say with satisfaction, that people of Haryana respected this sentiment. Gender ratio has improved in the country and if any state is making fast improvement in this, it is Haryana," he said.

Modi said Haryana has taken fast strides in development and its people have made a mark in all spheres of life, and thus the state has the potential to steer the country forward and act as its growth engine.

"If we move forward keeping public interest and participation in mind, then we can achieve something. I am confident that Haryana has much strength to take the country forward and can act as its growth engine," he said.

The schemes Modi launched are 'Deen Dayal Jan Awas Yojana', Automation of Fair Price Shops and Kerosene Free Haryana.

The 'Deen Dayal Jan Awas Yojana' aims to put a check on the development of unauthorised colonies and simultaneously achieve the target of 'Housing for All-2022' at reasonable rates in small and medium potential towns.

Automation of the Fair Price Shops involves provisioning of point of sale device at every fair price shop with connectivity to ensure Aadhaar-based biometric identification of the beneficiaries and online transactions of food grains and other commodities.

This system will benefit 29.30 lakh poor families and 1.32 crore beneficiaries in the state.

With coverage of the remaining six lakh families out of the 11.05 lakh BPL families under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjawala Yojna (PMUY), Haryana is well on way to becoming the first major state to be kerosene free. Haryana has set the target to become Kerosene Free by March 31, 2017.