Prime Minister Narendra Modi continued his attack against NCP (SP) leader Sharad Pawar for the second day in a row for not fulfilling his promise of providing water to the drought-affected areas of Maharashtra and urged the people to punish him in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Targeting Pawar without mentioning his name during a rally at Malshiras in Solapur district, PM Modi said, “15 years ago, a very big leader came here to contest elections. Then he took an oath and said that he would provide water to the drought-affected areas here. But he did not fulfil his promise, and now the time has come to punish him…”
The Prime Minister said be it Vidarbha or Marathwada, this sin of making people yearn for every drop of water has been going on for years.
During a rally in Pune on Monday, PM Modi had attacked Pawar saying, “There is a ‘bhatakti atma’ (wandering soul) in Maharashtra. If it does not manage success it spoils others’ good work. Maharashtra has been a victim of it.”
“This game was started by the same leader 45 years ago. It was just for his own ambition that Maharashtra has always been an unstable state. As a result, several chief ministers could not complete their full term,” the PM had said.
Attacking the Congress, he said that the country gave them a chance to rule for 60 years but they couldn’t even provide water to farmers for irrigating their fields.
“In these 60 years, many countries of the world have changed completely, but Congress could not provide water to the farmers’ fields…,” he added.
In 2014, he said out of the 100 irrigation projects that were stuck for decades, 26 projects were from Maharashtra.
“Just think, what a big betrayal Congress has done to Maharashtra…,” added the Prime Minister.
The PM said that it was his life’s mission to provide water to every household and farm.
“After coming to power in 2014, I put all my might into completing the stalled irrigation projects. Today, of these 100 projects, 66 projects have been completed,” he said.
PM Modi said that before 2014, when the Opposition was in power they did nothing for the welfare of farmers but today they talk big things about farmers.
He said that it’s his duty to remind the farmers about the situation and apprise them of the reality.
Attacking Pawar, he said when he was the agriculture minister in the “remote control government”, the fair and remunerative price (FRP) of sugarcane was Rs 200, but now under “Modi’s sevakal”, it is Rs 340 per quintal.
“When this stalwart leader was the agriculture minister in Delhi, the sugarcane farmers used to run from pillar to post for their arrears. Today, the situation has changed as 100 per cent arrear payment is happening,” he said.
In 2014, the amount of sugarcane arrears paid to farmers was Rs 57,000 crore, but this year, Rs 1,14,000 crore were paid as arrears to them, he said.
Sugar mills in the country were annoyed due to the income tax, he said.
Referring to Pawar, the PM said when the stalwart leader was the agriculture minister in Delhi, he used to tell him to resolve the issue of income tax for cooperative sugar mills.
“When we came to power, we provided a solution and gave a respite of Rs 10,000 crore to the cooperative sugar mills by waiving the income tax,” PM Modi said.
Modi said during Pawar’s tenure as the agriculture minister, the government procured agricultural produce worth only Rs 7.5 lakh crore from the farmers. But in the last 10 years, produce worth Rs 20 lakh crore has been purchased from farmers.
With inputs from PTI
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‘It’s now time to punish him’: PM Modi targets Sharad Pawar on his work as agriculture minister
