New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said “Atmanirbhar Bharat’ is not merely a government-led effort, it is the national spirit of India to make the country self-reliant.
Addressing the 74th edition of his monthly radio broadcast – “Mann Ki Baat’, the Prime Minister announced that in a few days, the Jal Shakti Ministry will launch a campaign “Catch the Rain’ aimed to catch the rain, where it falls, when it falls.
“During this month of `Magh’, Haridwar is hosting Kumbh this year. On March 22, World Water day will be celebrated. To associate `magh’ month with water is that after this month winters end and summers begin,’ he said.
In his 33-minute radio address, Modi touched upon various issues concerning the country — corona virus, water conservation, exam season for students, efforts to make science more popular across India.
“From now on, we will get the rain water harvesting system — already in place — and make it function. We will get villages, ponds cleaned to help increase water harvesting,’ he said.
Reminding the people that water is a collective gift from nature, the Prime Minister said the responsibility of saving water is also collective. “It is correct that just as there is a collective gift, there is a collective accountability too. River, lake, pond or ground water – all of these are for everyone,” he said.
Pointing to an effort underway at Thiruvannamalai, Tamilnadu where local people have been running a campaign for the conservation of their wells, the Prime Minister said that people are rejuvenating public wells in their vicinity that had been lying unused for years.
Making a mention of Babita Rajput’s village Agrotha in Madhya Pradesh in Bundelkhand region where once there was a very large lake which had dried up, Mr Modi said that she mobilized other women of the village itself and built a canal to bring water to the lake. Through this canal, rainwater started flowing directly into the lake and the lake remains filled with water.
The Prime Minister appealed to the people to start a 100 day campaign for the sake of cleaning up water sources around us and conserving rainwater. “With this very thought in mind, in a few days from now, Jal Shakti Abhiyan CATCH THE RAIN is being initiated by the Jal Shakti Ministry. Its credo is ‘CATCH THE RAIN, WHERE IT FALLS, WHEN IT FALLS’. We shall commit ourselves to the task right now…we shall get existing rain water harvesting systems repaired, clean up lakes and ponds in villages, remove impediments in the way of water flowing into water sources; thus we shall be able to conserve rainwater to the maximum, he said.
He also invoked poet-saint Ravidas whose birth anniversary falls on Magh Poornima, to highlight social ills that had pervaded society at that time and drive home the point that people should incessantly strive with their work and asked the youth to learn that in doing so they should not bind themselves to old methods and practices. “Decide and shape your life yourself. Devise your own methods and practices, set your goals yourselves. If your conscience and self confidence is unshakeable, you need not fear anything in the world,” he said.
