New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated nine infrastructure development projects, worth Rs 14,000 crores, for Bihar, through video conferencing on Monday.
The Prime Minister also inaugurated the 'Ghar Tak Fibre' Project under which all 45,945 villages of Bihar will be connected through optical fibre internet service.
"Nine-projects have been inaugurated today which include making six-lane highways, and three bridges on rivers. I congratulate the people of Bihar for getting these projects. Today is not only important for Bihar but for the whole country, today India is taking a big step to make its villages a basis of Atmanirbhar Bharat and I am happy that it is starting from Bihar," Modi said.
"Under this project in the next 1,000 days, one lakh villages in the country will be connected through the optical fibre. I have full faith that with Nitish Ji's good governance and strong will the work will be completed fast in a rapidly developing Bihar," he added.
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The Prime Minister said that just a few days back nobody would have imagined that the number of internet users in villages would have exceeded those in cities.
"Our farmers will benefit a lot from this, they will get real-time information about weather conditions, new techniques, seeds, crops and practices. They will also be able to sell their produce anywhere in the country and abroad," Modi added.
The PM said that the passing of the agriculture reform bills by the Upper House of the Parliament was a massive step towards giving farmers the freedom to sell their produce anywhere.
"The new agriculture reforms have given the freedom to every farmer in the country to sell their produce anywhere. If he gets more profits in the mandi, he will sell it there. If apart from this he gets more profit anywhere else then he is not obstructed from selling them there too," Modi said.
"The earlier system of selling the produce, the laws which existed, had kept the farmers' hands tied. Acting under the garb of these laws such powerful groups had formed in the country which were benefitting from the farmers' misery. How long should have this allowed to go on ?" he added.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi, Union Ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and Raj Kumar Singh, along with other officials also participated in the meeting through video conferencing.
During the meeting, Kumar also thanked PM Modi for passing the agriculture reform bills in the Rajya Sabha, adding that once implemented everybody on the ground would benefit from them.
ANI report
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