PM to launch 10,000 FPOs, lay foundation stone for Bundelkhand Expressway in UP today

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch 10,000 Farmers Producer Organisations (FPOs) all over the country in Chitrakoot, Uttar Pradesh here on Saturday.

Nearly 86 per cent of farmers are small and marginal with average land holdings in the country being less than 1.1 hectares.

These small, marginal and landless farmers face tremendous challenges during agriculture production phase such as for access to technology, quality seed, fertilizers and pesticides including requisite finances. FPOs help in the collectivisation of such small, marginal and landless farmers in order to give them the collective strength to deal with such issues, read a statement.

Members of the FPO will manage their activities together in the organization to get better access to technology, input, finance and market for faster enhancement of their income.

The event shall also witness the completion of one year of the launch of PM-KISAN scheme.

Launched on February 24 last year, the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) is an income support scheme for farmers to enable them to take care of expenses related to agriculture and allied activities as well as domestic needs. Under this, the benefit is provided to the eligible beneficiary to the tune of Rs.6000 per year. It is payable in three four-monthly instalments of Rs 2000 each. The payment is made online directly into the bank accounts of the eligible beneficiaries under Direct Benefit Transfer mode.

The Prime Minister will also be launching a saturation drive for distribution of Kisan Credit Cards (KCC) to all the beneficiaries under the PM-KISAN Scheme. Over 6.5 crore of the approximately 8.5 crore beneficiaries under PM-KISAN scheme possess the Kisan Credit Cards. The saturation drive shall ensure that the remaining about two crore PM-KISAN beneficiaries are also distributed the Kisan Credit Cards.

In Chitrakoot, Prime Minister Modi is scheduled to lay the foundation stone of the Bundelkhand Expressway at Chitrakoot here today.

The 296-kilometre long Expressway will provide a four-lane access-controlled route in Uttar Pradesh.

The Expressway will be supplementing the nodes of the Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor announced by the Government of India in February 2018.

The state government is constructing the Bundelkhand Expressway which will pass through the districts of Chitrakoot, Banda, Hamirpur and Jalaun. This expressway will link the Bundelkhand area to Delhi through Agra-Lucknow expressway and Yamuna expressway as well as play a vital role in the development of Bundelkhand region.

The 296 km long expressway is expected to benefit Chitrakoot, Banda, Mahoba, Hamirpur, Jaloun, Oraiyah and Etawah districts.

India has huge defence equipment requirements spanning from land systems, ships and submarines to fighter aircraft, helicopters, weapons and sensors. The requirements are worth over USD 250 billion by 2025. In order to fulfil these requirements, the government had announced setting up of Defence Industrial Corridor at Uttar Pradesh during the Investors Summit on February 21, 2018, in Lucknow.

The Central government has set up the Corridor with identification of six nodes initially. These are Lucknow, Jhansi, Chitrakoot, Aligarh, Kanpur, Agra out of which two nodes are being created in Bundelkhand region at- Jhansi and Chitrakoot. In fact, the biggest cluster would be created at Jhansi. The land which was not being cultivated has been purchased in both Jhansi and Chitrakoot. The poor farmers of the region have got benefitted from this.

Besides this, Prime Minister Modi will be distributing assistive aids and devices to senior citizens (under the Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana-RVY) and 'Divyangjans' (under ADIP Scheme) at a distribution camp at Prayagraj.

"This is the biggest ever distribution camp being conducted in the country in terms of the number of beneficiaries covered, number of appliances distributed and value of aids and appliances distributed," read a statement.

In the mega camp, over 56,000 assistive aid and devices of different types will be distributed free of cost to over 26,000 of beneficiaries. The cost of the aids and devices is over Rs 19 crore. The objective is to provide assistance through these aids and devices to the daily living and socio-economic development of the 'Divyangjan' and the senior citizens.