PM blames Congress for agrarian crisis in country
Rae Bareli (UP), Dec 16: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday blamed the Congress for agrarian crisis in the country and said despite being in power for 10 years, the UPA government did not implement the recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee report.
Attacking the Congress at a public meeting at UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's home turf, Modi said the party neither "bothered about jawans nor farmers".
"Why did the Congress not implement the recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee report despite being in power for 10 years. The Congress will never answer this," Modi said.
The NDA government implemented the Swaminathan committee report on Minimum Support Price (MSP) to increase the income of farmers, he said, adding the MSP has been ensured for 22 rabi and kharif crops.
"The Congress eco-system will never tell you that this decision will enable the farmers of the country to get Rs 60,000 crore," he said.
Hitting out at the Karnataka government where the Congress is an alliance partner, Modi said, "The Congress has been speaking big things about loan waiver, but all of them are lies." In Karnataka, loan waiver was promised in 10 days, but the truth is something else after six months, he said.
"Newspaper reports say that in the past six months in Karnataka, loans of less than 1,000 farmers have been waived. Arrest warrants have been issued against the farmers. The Congress is exerting full force to bury the truth, hide and stop it from coming in front of the farmers of the country," he said.
The prime minister said the central government was working day and night to ensure 'Sabka Saath, Sab Ka Vikas'.
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MP cruise boat tragedy: Search ops expanded to trace four missing passengers
Jabalpur (PTI): Army divers and disaster response teams on Saturday expanded their search at Bargi Dam in Madhya Pradesh to locate a man and three children still missing after the cruise boat tragedy that claimed nine lives two days ago, officials said.
With 28 of the 41 identified passengers onboard the ill-fated cruise boat rescued safely, police are preparing to register an FIR in connection with the accident that occurred at the reservoir in Jabalpur district on Thursday evening, they said.
The search radius has been expanded to 5 km in the backwaters of the Bargi Dam, located downstream of the Narmada River, area sub-divisional officer of police (SDOP) Anjul Ayank Mishra told PTI.
Nine people drowned in the incident, while 28 were rescued, and efforts are ongoing to trace the missing persons, he said.
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According to the police, more than 200 rescuers, including around 20 Army divers airlifted from Agra, began the search operation at 5 am on Saturday to trace Kamraj, an employee of the Ordnance Factory in Khamaria, his son Tamil (5), Vijay Soni (6) and Mayuram (5).
Mishra said that an inquest case has been registered and the post-mortem of nine deceased persons has been completed.
"Our priority is to search for the missing persons. We will soon register an FIR," he said.
Investigators have said that CCTV footage near the boarding point showed 43 people heading towards the ill-fated boat, and the names of 41 persons, who boarded the vessel, have been ascertained so far.
Collector Raghvendra Singh confirmed that a search is underway for four missing persons.
The rescue operation, being carried out by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and local divers, was briefly affected around 9 am due to strong winds.
The state government on Friday ordered a probe into the incident and dismissed three crew members after survivors alleged negligence and safety lapses, including failure to provide life jackets.
The government also banned the operation of similar vessels in the state.
The boat, operated by the state tourism department, sank during a sudden storm around 6 pm on Thursday, and the wreckage was retrieved from the dam water on Friday, after the rescuers confirmed that there were no more bodies inside.
Eyewitnesses have said that strong winds made the water choppy, prompting passengers to raise an alarm and ask the crew to steer the vessel towards the riverbank.
A survivor alleged negligence by the crew and described a last-minute scramble for life jackets.
