'Bundelkhand Expressway will increase employment opportunities,' says PM Narendra Modi

After laying the foundation stone for the Bundelkhand Expressway on Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted that the Expressway will create job opportunities for the people residing in Uttar Pradesh and will also help locals to get connected with big cities.

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"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," PM Modi said while addressing a public gathering.

PM Narendra Modi Launches FPOs

On the same day, Prime Minister also launched 10,000 Farmers Producer Organisations (FPOs) from Chitrakoot Madhya Pradesh. PM Modi informed that the initiative will uplift the farmers and the FPOs will increase the of the farmers across the country.

"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."

PM also informed that Rs. 12,000 crore has been deposited in the bank account of the farmers in Uttar Pradesh with a period of 1 year without any middlemen.

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"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," PM Modi said.

PM Modi targets previous UP Government

PM Modi also targetted the previous Uttar Pradesh governments for practising 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.

Bundelkhand Expressway to benefit farmers, UP CM Yogi

Bundelkhand Expressway is going to benefit the farmers of the region said Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath who was also present at the event. 

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"A defence corridor is being made and Bundelkhand is going to be connected to it. Chitrakoot Dham is going to be benefitted by the Bundelkhand expressway. The expressway is going to boost the profits of the farmers of Bundelkhand," Yogi said in a speech while addressing a gathering here.

Adityanath also expressed his gratitude to Minister Narendra Modi for enabling the supply of potable water to every home in Bundelkhand under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme.

"I thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi for enabling the supply of potable water to every home in Bundelkhand, a scheme he initiated last year. Under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme, 2.5 crore farmers of Uttar Pradesh have benefitted from it," he added.

About the Bundelkhand Expressway project

The 296-kilometre long Expressway will provide a four-lane access-controlled route in Uttar Pradesh. It 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 the Agra-Lucknow expressway and Yamuna expressway as well as play a vital role in the development of the Bundelkhand region.

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(With inputs from ANI)