Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation

Salient Points of PM Modi’s address at the ceremony to lay Foundation Stone of Projects under ‘Namami Gange’ and National Highway projects in Mokama, Bihar on 14 Oct, 2017

The whole country is gearing up to celebrate Diwali. Preparations for Chhath Puja are also underway.

I congratulate you in advance for Dipawali and Chhath Puja. And gifts worth nearly Rs. 4 thousand crore are being given to Bihar on this pious occasion.

Today, I have come to that land which is just a few hundred meters away from that temple of education which imparted the values to the national poet Dinakar Ji during his childhood. As one remembers Dinkar Ji his feelings inspire us even today.

Our country also had this kind of people whose thinking was responsible for the backwardness of the country.

I have read about this kind of politicians who used to talk like this if someone talked about constructing a road: ‘What is the need for a road, the roads are needed by those who have cars, do we poor people have cars, why do we need roads?’

The people with this kind of negative mentality, we cannot even think about the way they have ruined the country.

We should connect our large economic centres, economic centres are growth centres as well and those place where economy thrives; we also need to connect these places with interior areas through the road connectivity.

Those projects worth thousands of crores of rupees for which the foundation stones have been laid, these projects are not for merely running the vehicles on them.

The construction of road is meant for changing the economy of this place. And it is our attempt to bring prosperity here through the roads and these are roads that pull the prosperity and contribute in the making the area prosperous.

If we clean the river Ganga then nobody can stop its stream and that is why the government has been engaged in cleaning the Ganga by spending the billions and billions of rupees.

Brothers and sisters, during the last few days, government of India’s Railway ministry has started an important train for the people of eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, and it is going to be of immense benefit during Diwali and Chhath Puja.

Antyoday Express from Mumbai to Gorakhpur, this is the first Antyoday Express of the country and just one week ago I have flagged off from Surat the second Antyoday Train from Surat to Patna Jaynagar.

We have made this arrangement that the poorest of the poor can board the train at the last moment without reservation.

There were 18,000 villages without electricity. We started with the dream to finish it within 1,000 days. We still have some months left however we have electrified nearly 15,000 villages so far and we have been working at a fast pace to electrify those remaining 2.5 to 3,0000 villages.

Along with that we have recently launched Pradhanmantri Saubhagya Yojana. This Pradhanmantri Saubhagya Yojana, I’d urge Bihar to take full advantage of it.

In a country where the facilities for cleanliness were less than 50% of the requirement, today we have succeeded in taking this figure to nearly 80%, but we will have to take it further and therefore I especially urge to our people of Bihar to take one responsibility in their villages.

My brothers and sisters, you have blessed me by turning up in such a large number; I once again express my gratitude to you.

I assure you that the government of India is committed for the development of eastern India.