Preferred to finish pending projects instead of waiving loans: PM Modi

TIL Desk/National/Palamu(Jharkhand)/In an obvious attack on the Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that he preferred to complete the pending irrigation projects to empower farmers instead of waiving their loans.

Modi told a public rally in Palamau, about 160 km from Ranchi, that when he took power in May 2014, he found that several irrigation projects were pending for 30 to 40 years.

“Our government has started work on 99 pending irrigation projects at a cost of Rs 90,000 crore. Our government preferred to complete the irrigation projects instead of waiving loans,” he said after laying the foundation stones of six irrigation projects.

Work on the North Koel (Mandal) irrigation project was started in 1972 and ended in 1993, Modi said. The irrigation project is now a joint venture of Bihar and Jharkhand. The Prime Minister said that it would irrigate 111,000 hectare of land including 19,000 hectares in Jharkhand.