In Aurangabad, PM Modi inaugurates country’s first greenfield industrial smart city

The PM also inaugurated the state-of-the-art Auric Hall, a six-storey building that will be the monitoring and administrative nerve centre for the smart city and launched the Auric chatbot that will help anyone get their problems addressed by the city administration.

While addressing a state-level meet of empowered women involved in self-help groups, the PM announced that under the Jal Jeevan Mission, the Centre will invest Rs 3.5 lakh crore to tackle the problem of drinking water in the next five years. The scheme aims to provide piped water to all rural households by 2024.

The PM said that socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia had said that the biggest problems faced by women were related to water and toilet. “Governments have come and gone. But we decided to fulfil Lohia’s dream. We worked on providing toilets to women and ensuring water supply,” he added.

“Every house will have a toilet. Every house will have water,” he said.

Referring to the significant role played by GHGs, Modi said: “We have extended several sops to them in the Budget. Women, who have Jana Dhan accounts, will be allowed overdraft up to Rs 5,000 without any charge. This would make them less dependent on moneylenders.”

The Centre has decided that every member of SHGs can avail loan up to Rs 1 lakh under the Mudra scheme to help them start businesses, he added. Out of the Rs 20-crore loan distributed under the scheme, around Rs 14 crore was given to women, the PM said, adding that out of the 1.5 crore beneficiaries of the scheme in Maharashtra, 1.25 crore were women.

Reiterating that the whole country will become open defecation free by 2022, Modi said: “We will also provide a home to every poor person in the country. As as many have 1.8 crore people have already benefited (from Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana).” Maintaining that the housing policy does not come with a “one-fix formula”, the PM said that the Centre and the state have consulted the people to suit their requirements.

On the occasion, the PM handed over an LPG connection to Ayesha Sheikh Rafiq from Aurangabad — the 8th crore beneficiary under the Ujjwala scheme. He also gave away a LPG connection to Nargis Begum, who was brought in from Kashmir for the same by the administration.

“I have often spoken about providing LPG connection to 8 crore people. Today, I can proudly state that we have achieved the target seven months ahead of schedule,” said Modi.

He also praised the state government’s water grid initiative in Marathwada, claiming that availability of water will increase in every house once the scheme is completed.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis described AURIC as a “game changer” for Marathwada. He added that 50 companies, including from the US, Saudi Arabia, Japan, UK, China and South Korea are keen on investing.

“Aurangabad and neighbouring Jalna (being promoted as a logistic b) will emerge as the industrial magnet of India,” Fadnavis said.

Speaking about the Samruddhi corridor, the CM said the eight-lane project — connecting Nagpur to Mumbai —that passes through Aurangabad and Jalna will help these district witness industrial growth.