Voices from villages don't reach Delhi: Gadkari

Lamenting the plight of farmers in rural areas amid incidences of suicides, Union Minister for Road, Transport, Highways and Shipping, Nitin Gadkari on Monday said that voices from villages were not reaching New Delhi.

Speaking at the 35th convocation at the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA), Gadkari said that the administrative system was "far away from issues of rural areas". "I come from a region where farmers have committed suicides in large numbers. It is a matter of great concern to all of us that how can we improve the situation in these regions," Gadkari said.

"I have been living in Delhi I since some years now. I have seen that village voices don't reach Delhi. The administrative system of politicians and bureaucrats are far away from villagers. Neither the media and bureaucracy or politicians are aware of the grass root problems of the rural areas. And therefore the extent and the speed with which these issues should be addressed is not happening," Gadkari added.

Highlighting rural issues further, Gadkari said that people were not migrating happily from rural areas to urban areas but were forced to due to lack of amenities. "They migrate because there are no facilities like hospitals, schools, roads, etc., in the villages. It is unfortunate that in our country, priority has not been given to rural progress," Gadkari said.

Talking to the graduating students of the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA), Gadkari encouraged them to inculcate social entrepreneurship and work towards innovation, which could be beneficial to the farmers and rural population.

Taking an indirect dig at the chopper scam, Gadkari said: "We bought Rs 70,000 crore worth of aircrafts. But even today the villages do not have water to drink and for farming. Therefore, there is a lot of work to be done in this direction and fresh graduates like you can contribute to this cause with a great zeal."

Highlighting water scarcity as the most crucial problem, Gadkari said that the country's total irrigation stood at 46%, of which the least irrigated was Jharkhand at 5.6%. "Irrigation in other states includes Maharashtra at 18.6%, Madhya Pradesh at 21% and Gujarat at around 32%. There are about 11 states that face water crisis, including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and the Bundelkhand part of Uttar Pradesh. Some of them have excess water problem and some of them have scarcity," Gadkari said, while emphasising on the need of water conservation to tackle water woes.

IRMA saw the 195 strong batch of Post Graduate Programme in Rural Management and two Fellow Programme in Rural Management graduate at the convocation where Gadkari called for research and better technology for betterment of agriculture and village life. "Resources are not a major problem. Unless there is technological upgradation, research and innovation, there can't be economic viability in agriculture or rural economy," he added.