Diu: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today became the first Indian PM to visit the union territory of Diu.

Modi, who arrived here after visiting Somnath temple, also addressed a well attended meeting in the airport premises.

On the occasion he said that Diu with male to female sex ratio of 1000: 1040 is a place to give a message to the people of the country on the international women’s day and an inspiration for educate the girl child programme.

He also lauded the large scale use of solar energy in the territory saying that it produced 10 MW of solar energy against its consumption of 9 MW which is a big message to the country and the world and those experts who were trying to find a solution to the problem of global warming.

The PM also lauded the people of Diu for their big attendance in his meeting, the first one of any Prime Minister, organized at a short notice of 2 to 3 days. He also praised them for the large scale cleanliness drive taken up before his arrival.

Urging the people of Diu to make it Divya and Deep (light lamp), he said that it was a best suited place for tourism. A resolution should be taken to double the per capita income of Diu by 2022, when India would be celebrating the 75th year of its Independence. He also suggested the locals to resort to rain water harvesting which was a common practice in the coastal areas to deal with the problem of water scarcity even though water of river Narmada was to reach all the households as per the agreement with the government of Gujarat. He also suggested them to use the recycling of waste water for gardening and other purposes.

The PM also talked about the Rs 8 lakh crore Sagarmala project meant for development of coastal regions and also about a proposed scheme for fishermen under which Rs one crore to buy a modern boat would be given with 50% subsidy which would take them beyond 12 nautical miles for fish catching mission. He said that the government was preparing its draft and was ready for taking any suggestion even now. The scheme would increase the income of fishermen manifold and end the middlemen intervention.

He said that Diu can become a model for housing for all scheme also where no family lies below poverty line.

Modi also said that if the poor people were empowered then the poverty would end irreversibly. He had implemented demonetization to put a check on dishonest ones.

DeshGujarat