Page 30 - NIS English 16-31 August 2023

Interview Union Rural Development Minister

n The Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi used to say
that the soul of India resides in the village. What steps
have been taken to empower the rural sector?
n Rural India still has more than 80 crore population.
According to the 2011 census, there are 19.5 crore
households. Most of them are farmers and labourers.
The Prime Minister has done the work of increasing
the MSP for the farmers. Earlier there was only MSP
for paddy and wheat. Today pulses and oilseeds also
have MSP. The MSP has increased by about 70%. Not
only this, the farmer does not have to bother that urea
which he is sprinkling today is Rs.7 per kg or expensive
because the government is making it available cheaply.
About two and a half lakh crore rupees are being
given as subsidies to the farmers. In the form of Kisan
Samman Nidhi, farmers are being given assistance
of Rs 6 thousand every year for fertilizers and seeds.
Earlier, for fertilizers and seeds, they used to borrow
money from moneylenders or any other person and
INTERVIEW - GIRIRAJ SINGH, there was a burden of repaying them. The Prime Minister
UNION MINISTER OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT has worked in the interest of the farmers. Encourages

natural farming and setting up nano urea factories.
“WE ARE MOVING n What kind of efforts have been made by the Center to

FORWARD WITH THE n I thank the late former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee,
strengthen the infrastructure in the villages?
CHANGING SCENARIO who worked to connect the villages of India by bringing
the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana. Then Narendra
AND CHANGING PATH” Modi ji as the Prime Minister has taken it forward. When
our government came in 2014, there were about 4 lakh
km of roads, but now under this scheme the figure has
Prime Minister Narendra reached about 7.5 lakh km. We are making an effort in
Modi-led central government, the whole country to have the soul of a village and a
dedicated to service-good system of a city. In order to strengthen connectivity, we
governance and poor are now trying to find out how to connect rural roads
welfare, giving priority to with national and state highways. Under MGNREGA too,
wealth creation in villages has doubled as compared to
the underprivileged, has earlier. When we came to the government, the budget
transformed rural India. On for MGNREGA was Rs 35 thousand crore. If we look at
these issues Senior Consulting the figures, there was a budget of Rs 62 thousand crore
Editor Santosh Kumar and in 2019-20, but Rs 1.10 lakh crore was spent. In 2020-21,
Assistant Consulting Editor Rs 98 thousand crore was spent on a budget of Rs 72
Akhilesh Kumar interacted thousand crore. It was Rs 90 thousand crores in 2022-
with Union Minister for Rural 23. Actually this is not only budget based. Transparency
Development and Panchayati is the biggest thing under the leadership of Modi ji.
Raj Giriraj Singh. Here are Today almost 100 per cent MGNREGA accounts are
linked to the bank. Nearly 97% beneficiaries have been
excerpts from the conversation: given money by linking Aadhaar. Women's participation
is around 56%. Today Amrit Sarovar has also been linked

28 New India Samachar August 16-31, 2023