Prime Minister Narendra Modi today has said that the biggest lesson the pandemic has taught India is to become self-reliant and complimented rural India for defining social distancing in simpler words, ‘Do Gaz Ki Doori’, to make people understand its importance.
Modi said skills and knowledge of people are put to test during the time of a crisis, but India’s villages have displayed the best of their efforts to fight the pandemic.
“With its simple mantra of Do Gaz Ki Doori (maintaining distance of two yards), rural India has described social distancing in simple words, villages have showcased the best of their principles, traditional values to fight coronavirus,” Modi, who had covered his face with a ‘gamcha’ while interacting with gram panchayat members via video conference, said.
The prime minister was interacting with gram panchayat heads and members to mark Panchayati Raj Divas on Friday
“The biggest message COVID-19 has given, the biggest lesson it has taught is to become self-reliant,” Modi said, underlining that it is now imperative that villages also become self-reliant for their basic needs.
COVID-19 is a huge crisis for the world but people of India have shown grit in this fight. We are fighting this and we are moving ahead with new ideas to tackle the virus,” the prime minister asserted.
Despite limited resources amid the coronavirus crisis, citizens are taking on this challenge instead of succumbing to difficulties, he pointed out.
Heads and members of gram panchayats from across the country shared their experiences in handling the crisis and conveyed to the prime minister that people are religiously following the lockdown.
During the interaction, a gram panchyat member of Jammu and Kashmir said amid this crisis respect and suspect for the people should go in hand to ensure that spread of the virus is checked.
Modi also told them COVID-19 is an unique virus, it doesn’t enter homes of the people on its own, “it is you who can bring it home then it spares one.”
He asked a gram panchayat representative from Cachar in Assam whether people of the state were angry as Bihu festival could not be celebrated due to lockdown. The representative said people understood that the decision was taken in larger good.
In his concluding remarks, the prime minister stressed that there was need to ensure that people get correct information and are not swayed by rumours and misinformation.
Prime Minister Modi also launched the e-GramSwaraj Portal and Mobile App to make the operations of Gram Panchayats digital.
The unified portal is a new initiative of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj to provide the village panchayats with a single interface to prepare and implement their gram panchayat development plan.
He also launched the Swamitva Scheme on the occasion, which provides for an integrated property validation solution for rural India.
Demarcation of inhabited land in rural areas would be done by the use of latest surveying methods — drone technology with the collaborated efforts of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, State Panchayati Raj Department, State Revenue Department and the Survey of India.
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