In an effort to win back farmers' heart, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched Saryu Nahar National Project in Balrampur district in eastern Uttar Pradesh.
According to a press release from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), the 6,623-kilometer-long canal system will provide reliable water for irrigation of over 14 lakh hectares of land in nine districts in the region: Bahraich, Shravasti, Gonda, Balrampur, Siddharthnagar, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Gorakhpur, and Maharajganj.
After being unfinished for four decades, the project was finally completed in four years.
Despite the fact that work on the project began in 1978, it was delayed due to a lack of budgetary continuity, interdepartmental cooperation, and sufficient monitoring, according to the PMO, and it was never completed despite more than four decades.
The project was finally settled after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government took active measures to complete it, according to the announcement, which noted that more than 4,600 crore of the project's entire cost was funded in the previous four years.
PM Modi tweeted, "A project that had been unfinished for four decades has been completed in four years."
What distinguishes the Saryu Nahar National Project from others?
• The project entails the interconnection of five rivers—the Ghaghara, Saryu, Rapti, Banganga, and Rohini—to ensure the most efficient use of the region's water resources. The 6,600-kilometer-long sub canals have been linked to the 318-kilometer-long main canal.
• According to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), the project will offer guaranteed water for irrigation of over 14 lakh hectares of land and assist around 29 lakh farmers in over 6,200 villages.
• Farmers in eastern Uttar Pradesh, who were undoubtedly the hardest affected by the canal project's unreasonable delay, are now expected to benefit from the improved irrigation capability and grow crops on a larger scale, maximising the region's agri-potential.
• The canal project, according to the Uttar Pradesh government, will not only enhance the agriculture industry in eastern Uttar Pradesh, but will also be a key milestone in the BJP administration's goal to treble farmers' income by 2022.
• The canal system is also projected to safeguard eastern Uttar Pradesh's areas from flooding.
Protesting farmers will be returning to their villages from the Delhi border when the Prime Minister inaugurates the Saryu Nahar National Project on Saturday in Balrampur, Uttar Pradesh, as a result of peasants' unions putting off their year-long agitation against the now-repealed agricultural laws.
It demonstrates the farmers' faith in the Bharatiya Janata Party government, according to a BJP leader, who also stated that functionaries have been mobilised to ensure the success of the inaugural ceremony.
The Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government has also started a big social media campaign, as well as a campaign in rural eastern UP, touting the project as a major accomplishment of the party's double engine governance at the state and central levels.
