Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
New Delhi
India will grow to be a $3 trillion economy this very year, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday while outlining her vision to bring the beleaguered farming sector out of the dark.
Talking about the Modi government’s focus on ‘gramin Bharat’, she quoted Mahatma Gandhi while saying that ‘antodaya and gram, gramin and kisan’ will be the central point of all its plans.
“We will support infrastructure activities in driving farmers’ produce,” she said, adding that ease-of-doing business should also apply to the sector.
Announcing the idea of going back to basics, she said zero budget farming needed to be replicated to double farmers’ income by 2022.
Terming fishing and fishermen as an important part of the allied agriculture, she announced the establishment of a robust fisheries management scheme.
She said the focus sectors are honey, bamboo and khadi clusters outlining the potential of agro rural economy.
Wondering why the ‘annadata’ could not be made ‘urjadata’, she outlined the potential of programmes for generating cattle feed and power.
Sitharaman congratulated farmers on success in pulses and hoped similar success in oil seeds to reduce import bills. She also announced the formation of 10,000 farmer organisations to sustain farmers.
She said saving water is the duty of all Indians, so they would work with states to ensure ‘har ghar jal’ in all rural households by 2024 by supporting schemes on groundwater recharge, rainwater harvesting and waste water management.
The government had identified blocks that are overexploited under the Jal Shakti Abhiyan, she added.
Nirmala spoke of the Ujjwala scheme and other initiatives taken by the government for rural India.
She said every rural household, except those unwilling to take the initiative, would have LPG and power connections; there would be housing for all by 2022 and there were plans to lay 1,25,000 km rural roads.
