Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, 21 September, laid the foundation stone of nine highway projects in Bihar via video conference. These projects involve a road length of about 350 kilometres and will cost Rs 14,258 crore, Hindustan Times reported. He also inaugurated optical fibre internet services through which the state's all 45,945 villages will be connected.
Speaking at the event, PM Modi addressed the passage of the two controversial farm bills in the Rajya Sabha on Sunday, saying that this change in the farming sector is the need of the present hour. He said that the Parliament had on Sunday passed “historic laws giving new rights to the farmers of the country.”
“I congratulate the people of the country, the farmers of the country, and the hopeful people of the bright future of the country for this. These reforms are the need of 21st Century India,” PM Modi said.
“These bills will empower the farmers to freely trade their produce anywhere. I want to make it clear that these bills are not against the agriculture mandis,” the Prime Minister said.
He also added that whoever was saying that the new agrarian reforms would bring an end to agricultural mandis is lying to the farmers, reiterating that new agricultural reforms have given freedom to every farmer of the country that he can sell his crop to anyone and anywhere.
“I want to assure every farmer that the Minimum Support Price system will continue as before,” he said.
Speaking about the projects that he was inaugurating in Bihar, he said, “The journey of making our villages Aatmanirbhar is starting from Bihar today. Six lakh villages will be connected through optical fiber in 1000 days.”
The project 'Ghar Tak Fibre' will be executed by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, and Common Service Centres (CSC), Livemint reported.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)