The Indian Express | Twin-cooktop model to Griha Pravesh, institutes to roads: On PM’s pre-poll inauguration spree

Feb 06,2023

In poll-bound Karnataka, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the India Energy Week (IEW) and flagged off the commercial rollout of a twin-cooktop model of Indian Oil’s solar cooking system on Monday.

At the event, which was also attended by Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Karnataka Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot and Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, the Prime Minister participated in a roundtable interaction with global oil and gas company CEOs. He also launched multiple initiatives in the field of green energy.

Modi also laid the foundation stones of two Jal Jeevan Mission projects at Tiptur and Chikkanayakanahalli in Tumakuru. The Tiptur Multi-Village Drinking Water Supply Project will be built at a cost of over Rs 430 crore while the multi-village water supply scheme to 147 habitations of Chikkanayakanahalli taluk will be built at a cost of around Rs 115 crore. As part of the ethanol blending roadmap for the country, Prime Minister Modi will also launch the ethanol-blended E20 fuel from Tumakuru.

The year 2023 is a crucial poll year. Right around the corner are the Tripura polls (February 16), after which are the Meghalaya and Nagaland elections (February 24). Karnataka goes to polls in May, while Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram will do so between November and December.

In the 2023 Union Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a Rs 5,300 crore outlay for the Upper Bhadra Irrigation Project to benefit the drought-prone areas of Central Karnataka.

Earlier, on January 18, the Prime Minister inaugurated and laid the foundation stone for projects worth Rs 10,863 crore in Kodekal that comes under Karnataka’s Yadgir district. He also laid the foundation stone for two packages worth Rs 4,109 crore for the construction of a six-lane greenfield highway from Akkalkot to Kurnool, which is part of the Surat-Chennai economic corridor.

On January 6, 2023, Union Home Minister Amit Shah virtually inaugurated five projects totalling Rs 52 crore at Chumoukedima in Nagaland, while saying that he had “full faith” that the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance in the state will form the government again with “absolute majority”.

Previously, on December 18, at the time of the North East Council (NEC) meeting, Modi inaugurated several development projects in Agartala and said the progress ushered in by the BJP’s double-engine government at the Centre and in the state is gradually turning Tripura into a “trade gateway and logistics hub” of northeast India.

At the time, the Prime Minister inaugurated the State Institute of Hotel Management at Anandanagar on the outskirts of the city, the Agartala Government Dental College at Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital besides a project to widen national highway-8. He laid the foundation stone for 32 road projects with a cumulative length of 232 km under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and launched 112 road projects and district highways of 542 km length. These projects are being developed as part of Rs 10,000-crore package provided for road connectivity development.

He also launched the ‘Griha Pravesh’ programme there, benefitting 1,51,019 families under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (rural) and 54,526 households under PMAY for urban areas.

During the same time, the PM unveiled projects worth over 2,450 crore rupees in Meghalaya.

The projects included the inauguration of 320 completed and 890 under construction 4G mobile towers, the new campus of IIM Shillong, at Umsawli, the Shillong – Diengpasoh Road and four other roads projects across the three states of Meghalaya, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, an official press release said.