Kota: Union minister for road transport and highways, shipping and water resources, river development Nitin
Gadkari and Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhra Raje on Friday doled out over ten developmental projects for Hadouti region worth Rs 8509 crore including Parwan Dam project worth Rs 6490 crore that would benefit the people of Baran, Jhalawar and entire Kota division with drinking water for over 820 villages and irrigation water for over one lakh hectare agriculture land.
Addressing a public meeting in the Grain Mandi premises in Baran, Gadkari, while reiterating Prime Minister Narendra Modi's commitment to double the income of farmers by 2022, said water, electricity, road transport and telecommunication are four essentials for development of any state and to strengthen farmers' economy.
Now acquisition of land would not be carried out for construction of canal for irrigation water as the government has decided on a plan to supply water for irrigation through underground pipelines, the minister said, adding, "The underground pipelines would be laid to save the farmers' land from being acquired".
Micro water management for irrigation in agriculture land would be given priority and water through underground pipelines would be supplied through dripping system, Gadkari said.
It would raise the farmers' income about two-to-three times, he added. "Every piece of agriculture land should get water for irrigation," Gadkari stressed.
The minster admitted the farmers are not getting fair prices for their yield but assured they would very soon get reward as per their labour.
Stressing on the use of ethanol and bio fuel, Gadkari said the planning is in place to reduce their import. Farmers themselves will produce ethanol and bio fuel worth Rs 2 lakh crore and it will provide employment to the youths in villages while saving huge import bills for the governmentt.
Gadkari asked Raje to form a policy in the state for second generation ethanol saying that when farmers would be able to provide an alternative to petrol and diesel in form of ethanol and bio fuel, the fate of the country and of farmers would certainly change.
"We have prepared bio CNG with the help of engineers from Pune and now we are talking about driving truck and tractors with bio CNG," he said,.
The minister further said it is not possible for the government to pay higher prices to the farmers for their yield due to global economy but it can certainly raise their income by raising their productivity with promotion of bio-fertilizers, agro processing units and drip irrigation.
Gadkari assured the farmers of Rajasthan to fully resolve the water dispute among Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana and claimed he is committed to sort out all the water related disputes among the states. He said a proposal worth Rs 1 lakh crore has been chalked out to provide water that would flow into the sea at Tamil Naidu, Telangana, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
Raje said Gadkari is known for keeping his words. 'Nitin Gadkari is the minister who does what he says', she said. Raje said the Parwan Dam project for which foundation stone was laid on Friday would be completed by 2021.
The chief minister counted the achievements of her government on its fourth anniversary and claimed Gourav Paths in 75 gram panchyats out of a total 221 have been constructed and the construction of 64 Kisan Paths has been completed so far.
State's ministers Prabhu Lal Saini, Yunus Khan, Babulal Verma, Dr Rampratap, MP Dushyant Singh, Om Birla and other leaders of the region were present on the occasion.
