Indian farmers should turn challenges into opportunities: PM Modi

“There are a lot of challenges before our farmers but these challenges can be transformed into opportunities with a resolution which would not be so hard to fulfill, ” he added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Kisan Kalayan Rally in Bareilly on Sunday.

India unveiled a budget for the poor on Monday, announcing new rural aid schemes and skimping on a bank bailout, in a strategy shift that seeks to boost Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party in coming state elections.

The MEA’s response came after 34 US Congressmen led by Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, a bipartisan rights caucus in the US, wrote to Mr Modi on February 26, pointing out the “beef ban” and vigilante threats to religious freedom of minority groups in India. Prime Minister said despite all odds India is growing at a fast pace.

That includes a major hike in spending on a rural employment scheme introduced under the last government and a pledge to ensure all the country’s villages have electricity within two years.

“The Prime Minister has said that Ministry of Power must strive to complete electrification of 200 villages every week by following up with state implementing agencies regularly”, a source said adding, that progress with regard to electrification of villages should be properly highlighted.

Jaitley pledged to spend 359 billion rupees ($5.2 billion) on doubling the income of India’s estimated 120 million farmers over the next 5 years through measures including a crop insurance scheme and better access to markets.

He said “there is no criticisim” of any state and “there is no need for it” but he only wants to “urge” them with the promise that “the Centre is ready to work shoulder-to-shoulder” with them in the implementation of schemes. He claimed that Mr Akhilesh, himself being from the family of farmers, is fully aware of the problems of the ryots and is also sensitive towards them.

Modi has been addressing several farmer rallies recently, and in an earlier rally at Belgaum in Karnataka, Modi had said – “The negative effects of the global slowdown can be effectively tackled by simultaneously promoting agriculture, manufacturing and service sector”.