In another gift to the poll-bound state of Bihar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday inaugurated nine infrastructure development projects, worth Rs 14,000 crores through video conferencing.
Along with the infrastructure projects, the PM also inaugurated the 'Ghar Tak Fibre' Project under which all 45,945 villages of Bihar will be connected through optical fibre internet service.
"Nine-projects have been inaugurated today which include making six-lane highways, and three bridges on rivers. I congratulate the people of Bihar for getting these projects. Today is not only important for Bihar but for the whole country, today India is taking a big step to make its villages a basis of Atmanirbhar Bharat and I am happy that it is starting from Bihar," Modi said.
"Under this project in the next 1,000 days, one lakh villages in the country will be connected through optical fibre. I have full faith that with Nitish Ji's good governance, strong will the work will be completed fast in a rapidly developing Bihar," he added.
Modi further said just a few days back nobody would have imagined that the number of internet users in villages would have exceeded those in cities.
"Our farmers will benefit a lot from this, they will get real-time information about weather conditions, new techniques, seeds, crops and practices. They will also be able to sell their produce anywhere in the country and abroad," he added.
Speaking about the agriculture reform bills that have attracted a strong protest not just from the Opposition but BJP's ally SAD as well, Modi said that the passing of the farm bills by the Upper House of the Parliament was a massive step towards giving farmers the freedom to sell their produce anywhere.
"The new agriculture reforms have given freedom to every farmer in the country to sell their produce anywhere. If he gets more profits in the mandi, he will sell it there. If apart from this he gets more profit anywhere else then he is not obstructed from selling them there too," Modi said.
"The earlier system of selling the produce, the laws which existed, had kept the farmers' hands tied. Acting under the garb of these laws such powerful groups had formed in the country which were benefitting from the farmers' misery. How long should have this allowed to go on ?" he added.
The event was also attended by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi, Union Ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and Raj Kumar Singh, along with other officials through video conferencing.
On the ocassion, Nitish Kumar also thanked Modi for passing the agriculture reform bills in the Rajya Sabha, saying that everybody on the ground would benefit from them once they are implemented.
