Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Saryu Nahar National Project in Balrampur on Saturday. Built at a cost of more than Rs 9,800 crore, the project involves the interlinking of five rivers – Ghaghara, Saryu, Rapti, Banganga and Rohini to ensure optimum usage of water resources of the region. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Aadityanath was also in attendance.
The Prime Minister reviewed the Saryu Nahar National Project ahead of the inaugural event, even as a massive number of people gathered to participate. According to the Prime Minister’s Office, the project will provide assured water for irrigation of over 14 lakh hectares of land and benefit about 29 lakh farmers of over 6200 villages. The project will benefit nine districts of Eastern Uttar Pradesh.
“Whenever we’ll speak of Ram Temple in Ayodhya, the contribution of Maharaja Pateshwari Prasad Singh Saheb of Balrampur princely state (erstwhile) will be mentioned. People in Balrampur are connoisseurs, they gave two Bharat Ratna in the form of Nanaji Deshmukh and Atal Bihari Vajpayee,” PM Modi noted.
While addressing the event, BJP chief JP Nadda asserted that the workers of the saffron party were the only ones who helped the public during the COVID-19 crisis in the country.
“I can proudly say that I received an opportunity to become president of such a party. All parties went in quarantine when Corona came. They went into hibernation, isolation. No worker was seen outside, but BJP workers risked their lives to serve the nation,” said Nadda.
Speaking about late General Bipin Rawat and the other casualties of the December 8 helicopter crash, the PM expressed his condolences. “The demise of India’s first Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat is a loss to every patriot. He was brave and worked hard to make the country’s armed forces self-reliant, the nation is a witness to that,” he said.
“Wherever General Bipin Rawat maybe, in the days to come, he will see India moving ahead with new resolutions,” he added.
“India is mourning but despite being in pain, neither do we stop our pace nor our development. India won’t stop. India won’t be at a standstill. Together, we Indians will work hard and face every challenge inside and outside the country. We will make India even more powerful, even more prosperous,” the PM said.
Speaking at the inaugural event, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also highlighted the myriad developmental works undertaken in Uttar Pradesh. “We launched projects of Rs 10,000cr on December 7 and had inaugurated 9 medical colleges in Siddharthnagar and one international airport in Kushinagar,” he reminded.
Uttar Pradesh is slated to hold Assembly elections in February 2022.
Earlier this week, the Prime Minister had also inaugurated the Hindustan Urvarak Rasayan Ltd fertiliser plant, an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and ICMR’s Regional Medical Research Centre in Gorakhpur. A few weeks earlier, in mid-November, he had also inaugurated the 341-km Purvanchal Expressway in Uttar Pradesh’s Sultanpur district. Next week, PM Modi is also set to inaugurate the Kashi Vishwanath Dham (Kashi Vishwanath corridor). All BJP chief ministers and deputy CMs will attend the ceremony which will be broadcast live from over 51,000 places nationwide on December 13.
