Employement opportunities will increase with Bundelkhand Expressway: PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday exuded confidence that Bundelkhand Expressway will create job opportunities for the people residing in Uttar Pradesh and will also help locals to get connected with big cities.

"The Bundelkhand Expressway, which will be built at a cost of about Rs 15,000 crore will create thousands of employment opportunities here and will also connect the common man with a facility like big cities," he said while addressing a public gathering here.

Earlier in the morning, the Prime Minister had laid the foundation stone for Bundelkhand Expressway and also launched 10,000 Farmers Producer Organisations (FPOs) from Chitrakoot.

Talking about the initiative taken by the government to uplift the farmers, PM Modi said, " 10,000 FPOs have been launched to increase the income of the farmers across the country. Our job is to decide Minimum Support Price (MSP) price for the produce, to make soil health cards, assure that 100 per cent neem coating is done on Urea and completion of irrigation projects which are lying pending from the past several decades."

"Around Rs 12,000 crore have been deposited in the bank accounts of the farmers of Uttar Pradesh so far. This amount has been deposited within a period of one year. There were no middlemen. The money was transferred directly into their bank accounts."

In a veiled manner, PM Modi also targeted the previous Uttar Pradesh governments for practicing corruption in the name of providing relief to the farmers, saying, "You all must have seen in the past several decades that crores of rupees allocated for the farmers' help never reached them. We have left all those days behind. Every penny from Delhi is reaching the beneficiary."

Talking about the importance of Haat bazaars for the upliftment of farmers, the Prime Minister was of the view that these trading venues will become "hubs of the agricultural economy in the coming years.