PM Modi says Bengal will have a new govt and its farmers will get PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana
Narendra Modi said the BJP government would not only prospectively pay the benefits to the farmers but would also give them the entire amount retrospectively due to them.
Kolkata: Slamming the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 7 said the people of the state would elect a Bharatiya Janata Party government that would ensure in the very first cabinet meeting that the farmers of Bengal can avail the benefits of PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana (PMKSNY).
PMKSNY is a Central government scheme through which small and marginal farmers get income support of Rs 6,000 a year. The Rs 75,000-crore programme that aims at covering 12.5 crore farmers came into effect on December 1, 2018.
The money is paid in three equal instalments in a year and is paid through direct transfer to bank.
Modi said the BJP government would not only prospectively pay the benefits to the farmers but would also give them the entire amount retrospectively due to them.
The Prime Minister was speaking at a public rally in the industrial town of Haldia in East Midnapore district about 120 km to the south of Kolkata.
Lashing out at the Mamata Banerjee government for being ”anti-farmer”, Modi said the Trinamool Congress government did not allow the farmers of the state to get the benefits of the project.
Significantly, before the elections, BJP has been actively making noises about the interests of the farmers of the state. On February 6, party president JP Nadda launched “Krishak Suraksha Abhiyan” in the state to woo the farmers before the assembly elections.
Modi said that only recently the state government has written to the Centre expressing its willingness to implement the project in the state. The prime minister also alleged that though the state has sent the names of only 6,000 farmers in the state so far, the money could not be transferred to their accounts since the bank account details were not in order.
Modi also criticised Bengal’s ruling party for not implementing the health insurance programme Ayushman Bharat.
On his second visit to poll-bound West Bengal in two weeks, Modi dedicated four projects worth Rs 4,700 crore.
He inaugurated three projects — LPG project of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, 347-km long Dobhi-Durgapur Natural Gas Pipeline of GAIL and a four-lane Road Overbridge cum flyover at Ranichak — and laying the foundation stone of a catalytic dewaxing unit at the Haldia Refinery of Indian Oil Corporation.
One nation one gas grid is the need of the hour, PM Modi said in Haldia after inaugurating the LPG import terminal.
“India needs a gas-based economy,” he remarked.
Incidentally, chief minister Mamata has maintained that the BJP is trying to reap political dividends by alleging that her government is not allowing the farmers and healthcare insurance benefits to the people of West Bengal. Her government runs two schemes — Krishak Bandhu for the farmers and Swasthya Sathi for the common people for health insurance — with similar benefits.
“Modi’s dream would remain unfulfilled. Bharatiya Janata Party would not get even 100 seats in the impending assembly elections,” said Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy.
Mamata Banerjee, who swept the Left out of power after a 34-year rule in 2011 and returned in power in 2016, is facing a tough challenge from the BJP in assembly polls that is expected to be held in April-May.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP won 18 of the 42 seats in the state with about 40% of the vote share that has been its best show in Bengal so far.