On the morning of Saturday 25th May 2013 Shri Narendra Modi addressed farmers during the zonal Krishi Mahotsav at Jamjodhpur in Jamnagar district. The Chief Minister talked at length about the success of the Krishi Mahotsav initiatives and expressed confidence that agriculture will continue to scale newer heights in Gujarat. “We started Krishi Mahotsav initiative. In the scorching heat exerts, scientists, officials to go the villages among the farmers. The work they do in the lab is taken to the land. This lab to land aspect is what is unique about Krishi Mahotsav,” stated the Chief Minister. He also launched the M-Gujarat application, which enables farmers to share their agriculture stories with Shri Modi through technology. Farmers will also be given a certificate for the same. Shri Modi described this as another instance of how technology can bring people closer to make a difference and said that he looked forward to interacting with farmers through this application.Shri Modi directly took on the Congress party for their anti-Gujarat mindset, which has been manifested time and again. Referring to the Congress he affirmed, “They are only abusing Gujarat day and night. People have given them the answer, those who abused most got a stronger answer but still they are neither willing to learn nor improve. There can be no greater misfortune than this.” The Chief Minister directly held the Congress led UPA responsible for the delay in the installing of the dates in the Sardar Sarovar dam, which can benefit so many farmers and asked the Centre to immediately give permission to install the gates. The Chief Minister declared that the project could have been completed at a cost of Rs. 5000 crore but now it has reached Rs. 50,000 crore and still a lot needs to be done. He added that he does not want credit for doing the work on the project and that he is willing to put name and photographs of Congress leaders if they are scared that Shri Modi will get the credit. “Please give us water and take the credit if you want. There cannot be any politics in this. This is for Gujarat,” he avowed.
The Chief Minister shared that he also met the Prime Minister a dozen times regarding the issue of the gates but while he kept saying it must be done, there is no action taken on this. He further said that these gates are as high as a six-storey building and would take each gate would take two to three years to build. In total there are 40 gates to be built but still the Centre has done nothing on the issue. Shri Modi also pointed out that the Congress ruled Maharashtra and BJP ruled Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh have completed all their work but the Centre is refusing to do the needful. Shri Modi minced no words in taking on the Centre for their failure over the issue of providing crop insurance to the farmers of Gujarat, when the state received a bad monsoon for the first time in a decade last year. He asked whether the money for the crop insurance has met the same fate like that of 2G spectrum and India’s coal reserves? Shri Modi talked about how the state Government took key steps of waiving 50% of the power bill and interest concessions last year in the wake of the poor monsoon for the farmers.Shri Modi declared that the panic in the Congress was visible and that their party is on the verge of facing a whitewash in the upcoming Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections in Porbandar, Banaskantha, Dhoraji, Jetpur, Limbdi and Morva Hadaf. He urged the Congress not to play politics over drought issues. “On one hand we are burning the midnight oil and tirelessly working towards welfare of the farmers and on the other hand Congress is making strategies to stop the state’s progress,” he affirmed.
Talking about Gujarat’s progress in agriculture, Shri Modi spoke on how technology has made a qualitative difference in the lives of the farmers. He also recalled how successive Congress Governments ignored the dairy sector in Kutch and Saurashtra but now this has changed and the dairy sector is gaining strength in the region. He pointed out that milk production has shot up considerably in the last decade and farmers are even getting more money in their pockets due to this. He particularly pointed to the empowerment of women when the dairy sector grows. Shri Modi spoke on the steps the Gujarat government is taking to promote seaweed cultivation and opined that this will help women a lot. He also talked about how the coast of Gujarat, which was earlier seen as a burden is not becoming a hub of development for the people.On the occasion, various progressive farmers presented their agriculture produce to the Chief Minister. This included pomegranate and watermelon made using drip irrigation, tomatoes and chilies. The Salaya Nagar Palika welcomed Shri Modi. There was a presentation on Mega Seed Production High Tech Park in Junagadh and Shri Modi also honored progressive formers. Cheques were presented to Shri Modi for Kanya Kelavani initiative.
(You can download application from here)
The Chief Minister noted how a lot of youngsters are being drawn towards agriculture and urged farmers to visit the various exhibits and learn as many news things as possible from there. “I am honoring many progressive farmers and I see most of them are around 35 years. Who imagined that the youth of Gujarat is excelling in farming?” he asked.Ministers of State Shri Govindbhai Patel and Smt. Vasuben Trivedi spoke on the occasion. Agriculture Minister Shri Babubhai Bokhiria and Gujarat BJP President Shri RC Faldu were present on the occasion.
