Sanosara (Gujarat): Holding his first public rally in poll-bound Gujarat since taking office in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday reached out to farmers from the heartland of the restive Patel community after launching an irrigation project.
Modi also launched a veiled attack on the Congress after inaugurating the first phase of the ambitious Saurashtra Narmada Avtaran Irrigation (Sauni) project here, saying that polls can be won by dangling baits and “throwing pieces” but a country can’t be run by doing so.
Targeting the Congress which had questioned the timing of his visit to poll-bound Gujarat, Modi said his government does not believe in “throwing pieces” to attract voters.
“You can win polls by throwing pieces, but you cannot run a country by doing so. We do not believe in throwing pieces. We worked hard for almost 15 years for this project to bring transformation and development,” Modi told a huge gathering at Sanosara village in Jamnagar district in the patidar(or patel)-dominated Saurashtra region.
Water is a politically sensitive issue in Gujarat, which the BJP plans to cash in before the 2017 Assembly polls to revive its fortunes, specially at the time when it is facing challenges like Patel quota agitation and Dalit uprising.
The Congress has termed the inauguration of Sauni scheme at this juncture by the Prime Minister as an attempt to give a message to voters ahead of the polls.
In his address, Modi stressed on conserving water and remembered his days as Gujarat Chief Minister when people did not understood his vision to bring transformation in agriculture sector.
Earlier, Modi inaugurated the first phase of the ambitious Rs120 billion (Dh6.57 billion) SAUNI (Saurashtra Narmada Avtaran Irrigation Yojna) project that aims to satiate the water and irrigation needs of the perennially parched regions of Saurashtra in Gujarat.
Modi, who landed at the Jamnagar airport in the morning, had to drive down to Sanosara to reach the Aji dam site to inaugurate the first link of the project owing to inclement weather. The inauguration got delayed a little.
The SAUNI project, which in Gujarati means something for everyone, aims at diverting the excess floodwater from Sardar Sarovar Dam to fill up 115 dams of the water-scarce Saurashtra region through a network of canals and pipelines. The first phase would help irrigate 413,000 hectares of land.
The Prime Minister pressed a button at the Aji-3 dam to open Gate two, Three and Four, to start release of the water that would fill up Aji-4 dam. Simultaneously, water would also be pumped into Uund-4 reservoir. Modi had launched the scheme when he was Gujarat Chief Minister in September 2012, and on Tuesday opened the first phase.
Officials call the SAUNI project an engineering marvel since it involves lifting huge amounts of water through hundreds of kilometres to fill the dams. “SAUNI project is an engineering marvel that will quench thirst of 11 drought-prone district of Saurashtra and bring fresh life to the region,” Chief Minister Vijay Rupani tweeted earlier.
