Modi: Rurban Mission will transform rural India

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched the National Rurban Mission project from Chhattisgarh, describing the ambitious plan as an antidote to migration-related problems facing cities in India.

The project, launched in the remote village of Kurrubhat in Naxal-infested Rajnandgaon district in west Chhattisgarh, envisages development of 300 clusters of villages across the country as growth centres with provisions of urban facilities like education, healthcare and Internet and a “good life”, while retaining the “rural spirit”.

“In the long term, the project will transform rural India,” Mr Modi asserted, and regretted that nobody had earlier thought of such a plan that would help in checking unplanned growth of urban areas leading to mushrooming of slum clusters due to migration from rural areas.

“A huge country like India cannot have proper economic development unless even the remotest places are developed as growth centres,” he added.

Mr Modi said the schemes such as clean India mission and Rural-urban mission are primarily aimed at bringing positive changes in the lives of rural people.

“This government is for the poor, dalit, adivasi, oppressed and deprived sections of the society. It is for the person standing in the last row,” he added.