Modi’s brainwave to stem migration: Modernise villages to rival big cities

Himself answering the question,he said he had taken this as an opportunity and found out a solution to what he called as “rurbanisation”,a term coined by Modi himself.

Elaborating,Modi said “rurbanisation” combined a process of preserving the “soul of villages” by providing all the civic and infrastructure facilities available in big towns and cities to arrest migration and at the same time,bringing down the burden on big cities and towns bursting at their seams.

Addressing the audience comprising industrialists,real estate developers,journalists and bureaucrats,Modi warned that if it was not done now,a day would come when the villages would disappear,turning cities and towns into slums.

Quoting from a latest survey,he said three Gujarat cities — Ahmedabad,Surat and Vadodara — were poised to become the biggest cities in the country over the next few decades if the current trend was not altered.

Elaborating how he would accomplish it when all other states have failed in this venture,he said it would be made possible by providing all the facilities and amenities,including jobs by setting up industries in rural areas so that people did not think of migrating to cities and preferred to stay in their own villages.

He said there was a time in the state when doctors and teachers did not want to serve in rural areas because of lack of facilities for education of their children but claimed the trend had now changed with the extension of all modern facilities in rural Gujarat.

Taking a dig at the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre,Modi said he had suggested to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to launch waste water management and solid waste disposal projects to upgrade rural and agrarian economy. He claimed he also submitted detailed proposals and Sam Pitroda even came down to him to understand the issue. But UPA government ultimately dumped it.

“But I have decided to implement the two projects in 50 villages of Gujarat,” Modi said amid thunderous applause from the audience.

Editor all praise for CM
Showering praise on Modi,Editor-in-Chief of India Today Arun Purie described Gujarat CM as the one having total transparency,with no ideology other than believing in results because “he has no family and children to look after”. “What is happening in Gujarat is a revolution; it is going beyond Gujarat; it is having a multiplier effect on the country,” Purie said in praise of Modi.

Referring to US President Barack Obama coming to India in search of jobs for his countrymen,he said Modi’s formula of creating jobs in village and providing rural areas with all infrastructural facilities was the only solution to tackle the unbalanced growth of cities and checking rural-urban migration. “Rurbanisation is the only solution to our rural and urban problems,” said Purie.