Nagpur: Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone and dedicated to the nation various projects worth more than 75,000 crores in Maharashtra on Sunday. It includes national rail projects worth more than Rs 1500 crore, National Institute of One Health (NIO), Nagpur, and Nag River pollution abatement project, Nagpur. He also dedicated ‘Central Institute of Petrochemicals Engineering and Technology (CIPET), Chandrapur to the nation and inaugurated ‘Centre for Research, Management and Control of Hemoglobinopathies, Chandrapur.
The Prime Minister also dedicated to the nation, AIIMS Nagpur, being developed at a cost of more than Rs 1575 crore, is a hospital with state-of-the-art facilities, with OPD, IPD, diagnostic services, Operation theatres and 38 departments covering all major specialty and super specialty subjects of Medical Science. The hospital provides modern healthcare facilities to the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra and is a boon to the surrounding tribal areas of Gadchiroli, Gondia and Melghat.
Giving examples of the holistic vision of infrastructural development, Prime Minister Modi said: “The Ayushman Bharat scheme which provides free treatment up to Rs 5 lakh to every poor is an example of our social infra, the development of our places of faith from Kashi, Kedarnath, Ujjain to Pandharpur is an example of our cultural infra, the Jan Dhan Yojana, that connects more than 45 crore poor people to the banking system is an example of our financial infrastructure.”
The Prime Minister underlined that when development is limited, opportunities also get limited. Furthering his point, he explained that when education was limited to a select few, the talent of the nation could not come to the fore, when few people had access to banks, trade business also remained limited, and when better connectivity was limited to only a few cities, growth was also limited to the same extent. The Prime Minister said that as a result, neither the large population of the country was availing the full benefits of the development nor the real strength of India was coming to the fore.
He emphasized that in the last eight years, both this thinking and approach have changed with the principles of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas and Sabka Prayas.’ Modi remarked: “Those who were deprived earlier have now become priority for the government.” Giving examples of farmer-led development, Modi pointed out that the farmers of Vidarbha have also got the big benefit of PM Kisan Samman Nidhi and it is the government which has linked the facility of Kisan Credit Card by giving priority to the cattle herders.
The Prime Minister also warned everyone about the emergence of the politics of short-cut in India. He warned that political parties are looting the hard-earned taxpayers’ money for political interests and adopting shortcuts with the aim of forming the government by making false promises. He reiterated that at a time when the country is working towards becoming a developed nation in the next 25 years, some political parties want to destroy the economy of India for their own self-interest.
The Prime Minister lamented the lost opportunities of not being able to take advantage of the first industrial revolution and lagging behind during the second-third industrial revolution. He reiterated that when it is time for the fourth industrial revolution, India cannot miss it. “No country can run with short-cuts, a permanent solution with a long-term vision is very important for the progress of the country,” Modi remarked. /BI/
