Picture Courtesy : The Indian Express
On a visit to Odisha, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to link the people of the state with the Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme. The scheme provides Rs 5 lakh health insurance to the people.
“I urge Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik to link people of state with Ayushman Bharat scheme to be launched on Sunday,” he said addressing a public meeting after launching commencement of work for the country’s first coal gassification-based fertiliser plant at Talcher.
Referring to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s famous assertion that only 15 paisa out of a Rupee sanctioned by the Centre for welfare of people reaches beneficiaries, he said, “They knew about the ‘bimari’ (illness) but had no vision to solve it.”
The Bharatiya Janata Party government’s decision to directly transfer money to bank accounts of beneficiaries has done away with the practise of middlemen in implementation of any welfare scheme, he said.
Pointing towards the overwhelming gathering of people at the rally, Modi said it ‘clearly showed’ what the people of Odisha are thinking.
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on visit to Odisha and is set to launch half-a-dozen projects, including a fertiliser plant at Talcher, and inaugurate Jharsuguda Airport and UDAN in the state.
Modi, who proceeded to Talcher after arriving in Bhubaneswar, will lay the foundation stone and commence work for the country’s first coal gasification based fertiliser plant at Talcher in Angul district, officials said.
The fertiliser plant is being developed by Talcher Fertilisers Limited, a joint-venture of GAIL, Coal India Ltd, Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilisers Ltd and Fertiliser Corporation of India Ltd, they said.
The plant, to be commissioned by 2022, will ensure easy availability of urea in Odisha as there is no urea plant in the state.
During his one-day visit to the state, Modi will also dedicate to the nation mines of the NTPC and the Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd and railway tracks for transportation of coal.
Garjanbahal open cast mine of MCL, to be inaugurated by Modi, has coal block reserves of 230 million tonnes with annual production capacity of 13 million tonnes. It will generate direct employment opportunity for 894 people and
indirect job opportunities for 5,000, officials said.
The prime minister will launch the 53.1-km Jharsuguda-Serdega railway line constructed by MCL, which can be used for passenger traffic.
Modi will dedicate to the nation Dulanga Coal Mining Project of NTPC in Sundargarh district. This is the second mine of the the state-run company to be operational and its first in Odisha.
Coal produced from this mine will be used in the under-construction 1600-MW Darlipali Super Thermal Power Plant of NTPC in Sundargarh district, the officials said.
On the new airport in Jharsuguda, the officials said it has been developed for all-weather operations, including night operations for A-320 type aircraft.
Jharsuguda will be the second airport of Odisha to be operational and provide connectivity to Bhubaneswar, Raipur and Ranchi under the central government’s UDAN scheme
