DW BUREAU / Panipat

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday assured the people of Haryana that the double engine BJP government -- at the Centre and state level -- will work three times faster in its third term for all-round development, and emphasised that women's power will continue to grow.

The BJP has won the third term in a row at the Centre and in Haryana.

Addressing a gathering after launching the 'Bima Sakhi Yojana' of state-owned LIC, Modi said the central government, in the last 10 years, has taken several measures to empower women in various sectors, including defence, banking, and agriculture.

He listed several initiatives taken for women empowerment in the country. He said women, in large numbers, were becoming fighter pilots, recruited into police, and heading corporate companies too.

The Prime Minister noted that there were 1,200 producer associations or cooperative societies of farmers and cattle rearers led by women. Girls are moving ahead in every field -- from sports to education.

Lakhs of daughters have also benefited from increasing the maternity leave for pregnant women to 26 weeks, he added.

Modi said the new state government was earning praise from all quarters despite being formed recently. The country has witnessed the way thousands of youth have got permanent jobs here without corruption after the government formation.

Recounting his privilege of launching the 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' campaign from Panipat a few years ago, Modi underlined that it had a positive impact on Haryana and the entire country. In Haryana alone, the lives of thousands of daughters' were saved in the last decade.

"Today, I am once again assuring all the people of Haryana, that the state will develop rapidly. The double-engine government will work three times faster in the third term. And the role of women power will continue to grow," the Prime Minister said here.Highlighting that India was treading forward with the resolution of Viksit Bharat by 2047, he said that from 1947 till today, the energy of every class and region has taken India to this height.

However, to achieve the resolution of a developed India by 2047, India needs many new sources of energy. North-East India was one such source, Nari Shakti (women power) of India was another important source of energy in the form of women's self-help groups, insurance sakhi, bank sakhi, and agriculture sakhi. It will bolster the resolution of the developed India.

The Prime Minister stressed that it was imperative to ensure ample opportunities and remove every obstacle in their way to empower women. When women were empowered, new doors of opportunities opened for the country.

Emphasising that the policies made for rural women in India in the last 10 years, along with the policy decisions undertaken were indeed a subject of study, Modi said even though the titles of Bima Sakhi, Bank Sakhi, Krishi Sakhi, Pashu Sakhi, Drone Didi, Lakhpati didi sound simple and common, they are transforming the fate of India. India's Self-Help Group mission would be scripted in golden letters in history, considering the empowerment of women done by it, he added. Modi informed that 10 crore women across the country are associated with self-help groups and more than 8 lakh crore rupees of help to the women of self-help groups in the last decade.

On works being done for the welfare of the farmers by the Centre and state governments, the Prime Minister underscored that in the first two terms, the farmers of Haryana had received more than Rs 1.25 lakh crore as MSP, while after the formation of the government for the third time in Haryana, Rs 14,000 crore was given to paddy, millet and moong farmers as MSP.

Modi also laid the foundation stone of the new campus of Maharana Pratap Horticulture University to provide new facilities to the youth studying in this university.

The main campus of Maharana Pratap Horticultural University, Karnal, and six regional research stations, spread over 495 acres, will be established at a cost of over Rs 700 crore. The university will have one College of Horticulture for Graduate and Post-Graduate studies and five schools covering 10 horticulture disciplines. It will work towards crop diversification and world-class research for the development of horticulture technologies. Addressing the gathering, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said LIC will recruit 10th pass women as Bima Sakhi. Bima Sakhis will also get the benefit of commission on insurance

policies, she added.

(editor@dailyworld.in)