Mumbai: The Maharashtra government, comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), has named 11 welfare schemes in honour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 73rd birthday.
The programme, which aims to benefit various sections of the society, was named with the prefix ‘NaMo’, which stands for Narendra Modi.
The “NaMo 11-point programme” featured in a full-page advertisement in newspapers Monday. The ad carried a photo of CM Shinde with his deputies Ajit Pawar and Devendra Fadnavis along with a message of gratitude to the Prime Minister for his leadership and vision.
“Our PM has made India proud on the global stage by his stellar performance at the G20 summit. He has raised the respect and dignity of our country, and that is why we have decided to implement an 11-point programme under his name,” Shinde told the media Sunday.
The schemes — which announced in the presence of Pawar — include NaMo women empowerment, NaMo divyang empowerment, NaMo labour welfare, NaMo backward and poor classes welfare, NaMo pilgrimage and historical fort restoration, NaMo city beautification, NaMo tribal smart school, NaMo self-reliant and solar energy village, NaMo sports ground and garden, NaMo village secretariat, and NaMo farm ponds.
These are all newly-designed 11-point programme to use the number 73, which signifies the age of the Prime Minister.
For instance, 73 lakh women will be empowered under the women empowerment scheme, 73,000 construction workers will receive safety kits under the labour welfare scheme, 73,000 farms will be developed under the farm ponds’ scheme, 73 villages will become self-sufficient and solar-powered under the self-reliant and solar energy village scheme.
The schemes will also see establishment of 73 gram panchayat offices in each district through village secretariat programme. While 73 cities will be beautified under city beautification projects schemes, 73 sacred and historical religious places will be renovated under the pilgrimage places protection campaign.
This is not the first time that the Maharashtra government has named a scheme after the Prime Minister. In May, it launched a financial assistance scheme, NaMo Shetkari Mahasanman Yojana, for more than one crore farmers. Under this scheme, each farmer will receive Rs 6,000 annually in addition to the by the central government under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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