PATNA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday inaugurated four schemes and laid the foundations for three others worth a total of Rs 541 crore in poll-bound Bihar.
All the projects are related to development of urban insfrastructure in the state capital and a few other cities, with the focus being on cleaning the Ganga and delivering pure water to residents.
After being welcomed by deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi and briefed about the projects in detail by CM Nitish Kumar, Modi inaugurated and activated them.
He said, "In the early days after independence, Bihar was led by big and visionary leaders, who tried their best to remove the disparities and distortions caused by slavery."
But a time also came in Bihar when priorities and commitments of governments changed instead of building basic facilities. The PM said that the focus of the governments in the state had shifted away from governance.
"As a result of that development, villages of Bihar went backward in development and the infrastructure of cities, which once were a symbol of prosperity, couldn't be upgraded," he said.
Targeting obliquely the governments of both the Congress and the RJD, the Prime Minister said that when selfishness prevails over governance and the vote bank system suppresses the system, the worst impact falls on the people of deprived, exploited and marginalised sections.
"And the people of Bihar have faced and endured this pain for decades," the PM Modi said.
Lauding the roles of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi and their teams, PM Modi said they are trying to bring back the confidence of the weakest sections of society for the past decade and a half.
"In urban areas of Bihar, work to ensure access to pure water for lakhs of people is in full swing. The goal is to connect around 12 lakh families with pure water supply under the Amrit Yojna in Bihar," he said, adding that of the target, nearly 6 lakh families have been connected with pure water availability scheme in their homes.
Recalling the cultural bonding of Bihar's people with the river Ganga, he said that cleanliness of the Ganga has a direct effect on crores of Bihar's people.
"Bearing all these facts in mind, more than 50 projects worth Rs 6000 crore have been approved for Bihar because the state's 20 big and important cities are situated along the banks of the river Ganga," he said. He said that Bihar is the land of historic cities that have had a rich heritage for thousands of years.
"Thriving cities that were economically, culturally and politically prosperous had developed around the Ganga basins in ancient India. But the long period of slavery caused much damage to this legacy," he said.
Under the Namami Gange Mission, construction of more than 180 ghats is going on in the country including Bihar and of them, 130 have already been completed. He said that villages situated along the bank of Ganga are also being developed as Ganga Grams.
"The government is taking all efforts to prevent dirty drain water from cities falling into the river Ganga by making water treatment plants and two of them have been inaugurated today in Patna," he said. He called upon the people to work together for all-round development and meet the global standard of urbanization.
According to official sources, two water treatment plants built at a cost of Rs 151 crores and inaugurated by the PM in Patna will prevent 8 crore litres of dirty drain water from falling into the Ganga daily in Patna.
He also laid the foundations for three water supply schemes and one river front development scheme in Siwan, Saran and Muzaffarpur districts.
On the occasion, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar assured that all schemes supported by the central government would be completed on time.
Other prominent leaders who spoke on the occasion included Union IT Minister and Patna Sahib MP Ravi Shankar Prasad and deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi.