Praises Haryana, Gujarat for rise in female births
Praises Haryana, Gujarat for rise in female births
Underlining the significance of the recently-announced Crop Insurance Scheme, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Sunday on his monthly radio show “Mann Ki Baat” that awareness about it should be spread nationwide so that at least 50 per cent of farmers join it within two years.
He also pitched for continued efforts to popularise khadi and awareness to save the girl child and also referred to the recently launched “Start-Up India” programme.
Mr Modi said he needs “maximum help” from people to spread awareness on the Pradhan Mantri Crop Insurance Scheme that was launched earlier this month. “In our country, a lot is said in the name of farmers. I don’t want to get involved in that debate. But farmers face a major crisis. In natural calamities, their entire effort goes waste. His one year goes waste. To give him security, only one thing comes to mind, and that is crop insurance,” he said in his first “Mann ki Baat” of 2016.
“In the new year, the Central government has given a given a big gift to farmers — Pradhan Mantri Crop Insurance Scheme. This scheme has been brought not for the purpose that it should be praised or the PM should be hailed,” Mr Modi added. He said for so many years, there had been talk about crop insurance, but “not more than 20-25 per cent” of the country’s farmers had been able to benefit from such schemes.
“Can we take a pledge that we should connect at least 50 per cent of farmers to this scheme in two years I need this help from you. Because if a farmer joins the scheme, he will get huge help during a natural calamity,” he added.
Mr Modi said this time the scheme had got “wide acceptability because it has been made quite extensive and easy and involves use of technology. Not only this. If something happens to the crop within 15 days after harvest, even then help is assured.” Usage of technology will ensure speedy assessment and disbursement of compensation, he said.
“The biggest thing is that the rate of premium has been kept so low which nobody would have imagined. The rate of premium for kharif crop has been kept at two per cent, while for rabi crop it is one-and-a-half per cent... Now tell me, if any farmer is deprived of the benefits of this scheme, will he not suffer a loss I want the awareness about this scheme to spread,” the PM added.
The Prime Minister also referred to the “Start-Up India” scheme rolled out on January 16 and said it had infused new energy among young people. Mr Modi said there was a wrong notion earlier that the initiative was limited to the sophisticated area of information technology, but now it had become clear there were enormous opportunities in this programme for all kinds of sectors and areas, which includes farming. He gave some examples of startups in the farming sector in Sikkim, which was recently declared as an “organic state”, India’s first. Mr Modi invited more such examples of startup initiatives.
The PM referred to the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, that was on January 30, and said people should every year observe a two-minute silence at 11 am in the memory of the country’s martyrs.
Talking about the popularising of khadi, on which he had issued an appeal in his first “Mann Ki Baat” in October 2014, the PM said more and more youth were now using khadi products.
Specially mentioning the government’s ambitious “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” campaign, the PM praised the efforts of the Haryana and Gujarat governments in taking concrete steps to implement it. The number of female births in Haryana was rising fast as the “Beti Bachao, Beti Padao” campaign had brought about a “real” societal change there, he said.
“Haryana and Gujarat gave importance to the ‘daughter’ ... This year, the most educated girl of a village was invited to unfurl the national tricolour in a government school (at the Republic Day function). A well-educated ‘daughter’ was given special importance,” he said. Mr Modi had launched the scheme on January 23 last year from Panipat in Haryana, a state which has one of the worst sex ratios in the country. Mahendragarh district in the state was the worst-hit, with only 775 girls born per 1,000 boys.
