The India News Manch was held today in the National Capital, with the who’s who of Indian politics in presence. The massive conclave managed to bring together India’s most influential political leaders and voices, including Union Cabinet ministers, state cabinet ministers and members of parliament, chief ministers, party presidents, general secretaries, and spokespersons, to witness some of the most compelling panel discussions and exclusive interviews ahead of the election period.
Union Minister, Jal Shakti, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, joined us for an exclusive interview as part of India News Manch and spoke the various mission conducted by the Modi-government such as Namami Gange Programme and the BJP’s stance in the upcoming Punjab elections. Read excerpts.
Speaking about the goal of the government to supply water to every household by the end of 2024, the Union Minister said, ” Our Prime minister took an oath on 15th August for the second time; he expressed this resolution in front of the nation that as a part of his successful development schemes over the years, the woman of India won’t have to step out of their houses to fetch drinking water by the end of 2024. Every house in this country will have drinking water by that time. In the 2019 iconic speech, Modi revealed that the country has a population of over 19 crore villagers. Through the efforts of the last 70 years, the Indian government had managed to provide water supply to only 16% of households. So, 4.5 times the amount of work that had been conducted in the last 70 years had to be obtained by the Modi government in 48 months.
”The people of the country were a tad skeptical over the Jan dhan Yojna and the Swachh Bharat Mission, but by 2019 the public had unparalleled trust in Modi ji and they showed total confidence in him. As we know that the department of water supply comes under the state government, our government had in depth consultation with the state ministers and on 25th December PM Modi issued guidelines for the same. Since almost 2 years now, even under the distress of the pandemic, I proudly announce that our government with the help of the state government has successfully started providing water to almost 8 crore 70 lakh households.”
Further discussing about the Namami Gange Programme, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat exclaimed, “See, the river Ganga is on-going and it shall remain on-going. This is the wish of every citizen of India. We have to accept the fact the due to increasing population, the pressure on the water bodies is increasing. However, the damage that has been done since the last 50-100 year has to be repaired. Therefore, with this goal in sight, PM Modi began working on Namami Gange Programme.”
He went on to say that, “Even before this, in the year 1945, the Ganga action plan was launched. But since last 35 years, the work was being done in bits and pieces. Whereas, PM Modi made a holistic plan to obtain this goal of cleaning Ganga. There has been a noticeable change in the narrative of this issue, people have now started acknowledging that some change can be witnessed in Ganga now. During the Kumb Mela last year, people have 125 countries have vouched for this change. Through the process of micro irrigation coverage, we have started to contain the river water around the river area only. With complete trust me my words, I can affirm that the river area from Gangotri to Rishikesh is completely free of pollutants of any kind.”
Sharing insights on the effect of the farmers protest in the upcoming Punjab polls, the minister said, “Whenever there is discussions about farmers and farming industry, one topic that has always been bought up is that of the report of Dr. Swaminathan. I am sure that most of the people sitting on protests did not read that report carefully. Dr. Swaminathan is talking about land reforms and how there should be a robust structure in the agricultural sector and many more matters. Dr. Swaminathan wrote in an article that only Narendra Modi considered all this and made this law. There has been a massive shift in the way people saw the agricultural sector in India. We have a profit centric approach for the farmers now.”
