Congress gave farmers raw deal, now shedding 'crocodile tears': PM Modi

Lucknow: Promising to double farmers' income by 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday stepped up his attack on the Congress and other parties and mocked them for shedding "crocodile tears" for peasants despite themselves neglecting development and irrigation projects during their rule.

After inaugurating the Ban Sagar canal project and laying the foundation stone of the Mirzapur medical college, Mr Modi, who began the speech in the local dialect, said, "In the name of agriculture and farmers, the previous governments had been leaving projects incomplete or delayed them. Those who are indulging in politics in the name of farmers had no time to raise the prices of MSP. When we came to power, we drew up a list of incomplete projects and set about completing them."

Pointing to the delayed Ban Sagar project, he said, "The project could have been completed a long time ago but 20 years were wasted in talks, promises. The Ban Sagar project which had an initial cost of Rs 350 crore was completed at a cost of Rs 3,500 crore."

Previous governments used to come up with incomplete projects which got stalled and people suffered because of this attitude, he added.

He said that his government is working day and night for the development of farmers. “I urge farmers to take maximum advantage of government schemes to double their income.”