‘Connectivity ‘mahayagya’ underway in country,’ says PM Modi in Dehradun

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday kick-started the BJP’s election campaign in Uttarakhand, inaugurating or laying foundations of projects worth over Rs 18,000 crore and asserting a connectivity “mahayagya” is underway across the country to make up for the loss of 10 years of the previous government.

“The infrastructure projects inaugurated and founded here today are part of this ‘mahayagya’. We are doing things at double-triple speed to make up for the lost time,” Modi said addressing a rally at the Parade Ground here.

Reiterating what he had said in Kedarnath, the prime minister noted that the projects will help make this decade that of Uttarakhand.

He said the reconstruction work done at Kedarnath by his government had brought a record number of over 10 lakh devotees to the Himalayan temple in 2019.

He said the projects whose foundation stones were laid in Uttarakhand on Saturday cover almost all sectors, including a Delhi-Dehradun economic corridor which will reduce the duration of journey between the two cities to half, the country’s largest elevated wildlife corridor, child friendly city project and a new bridge next to Lakshman Jhoola in Rishikesh.

He said the previous governments had done little for the development of Uttarakhand whereas the BJP government at the Centre had spent Rs 12,000 crore on the development of the state in the past seven and a half years.

“Uttarakhand’s development is the highest priority of the double engine government. We have sanctioned development projects worth over Rs 1 lakh crore for the state,” Modi said.

“The previous governments did not have this thinking. Be it in Uttarakhand or elsewhere, the previous government only thought of filling their own coffers.”

Modi talked about the implementation of ‘one rank, one pension’ for ex-servicemen, buying modern weapons for the armed forces and giving a fitting reply to terrorists. He also spoke about how his government had built hundreds of kilometres of border roads.

Assembly polls in Uttarakhand are slated for early next year.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Dear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

We, however, have a request.

As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.

Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.

Digital Editor