PM Modi promises pension for farmers, small shopkeepers

BHAGALPUR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday reiterated his commitment of providing “regular pension” to farmers and small shopkeepers above 60 years of age and monetary assistance to all farmers under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman (PM Kisan) scheme if the NDA was voted back to power.

Earlier, only farmers having less than two hectares of land were eligible to get a direct income support of Rs 6,000 per year under the PM Kisan scheme, which was announced by the then interim finance minister Piyush Goyal in the 2019-20 Union Budget.

“If my government is formed after May 23, I will lift the conditional cap of 2 hectares of land and provide monetary assistance to all farmers. I will also pay regular pension to farmers and small shopkeepers,” the PM said while addressing an election rally at the airport ground here in support of JD(U)’s three Lok Sabha candidates – Ajay Mandal (Bhagalpur), Girdhari Yadav (Banka) and Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh (Munger). Bhagalpur and Banka Lok Sabha constituencies will go to the polls in the second phase on April 18 and Munger in the fourth phase on April 29.

The PM also promised to further ease goods and services tax (GST) structure to benefit traders with an annual turnover of Rs 10 lakh. He said the Centre would set up a Rashtriya Vyapari Aayog (RVA) to address the concerns of the traders.

“You all will press the EVM button in favour of arrow poll symbol of the JD(U), but every vote cast by you will go to my account. You need a leader who takes care of your interests and protects the dignity of the country’s border. The border can be protected only by one who has power in his arms,” the PM said.

Describing UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi as ‘jamanati log’ and ‘mahajamanati’, the PM said fearing that the election results could go in favour of the BJP-led NDA, they have started spreading the canard that the country would not see elections any more if the NDA returned to power. The PM dubbed the Grand Alliance as a ‘mahamilawati’ gang.

Invoking the “rich and poor” dichotomy, the PM said his government connected every village with roads and introduced Ayushman Bharat scheme to provide free healthcare to the poor. Referring to the 10% quota for the economically weak sections among the forward castes, the PM said the move was aimed at bringing social peace and harmony in the country. “The 10% reservation for the forward caste poor has nothing to do with the reservation already being availed by the backward castes,” he added.

Other than the three Lok Sabha candidates, CM Nitish Kumar, Union ministers Ram Vilas Paswan and Ashwini Kumar Choubey, BJP general secretary and the party’s Bihar incharge Bhupender Yadav and deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi also attended the rally.

Nitish hailed various schemes of the Centre and thanked it for providing Rs 50,000 crore for construction of roads and bridges in the state.