Kanyakumari, May 8 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said a big seaport at Colachel, entailing an investment of Rs.21,000 crore, will be set up in Tamil Nadu's Kanyakumari district and help provide jobs for local youth.
Addressing an election rally here, around 710 km from Chennai, Modi said the work on building the seaport has begun.
"For the first time an investment project worth Rs.21,000 crore has come to Kanyakumari. The seaport will provide employment to the Kanyakumari youth," Modi said.
He said tourism is another industry that provides lot of employment opportunities, and his government has laid a wide road connecting Kanyakumari with Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram which in turn would develop tourism.
Modi said economic development is the solution of all the problems.
According to him, the central government in New Delhi will reach out to people in crisis wherever they are and cited the Chennai floods as an example.
He said the central government provided help and relief material to people of Chennai affected by floods last December.
Referring to the release of Father Alexis Prem Kumar from Taliban's custody, Modi said the priest's sister did not believe when he called her and said: "I am Narendra Modi speaking."
"I told her that her brother will be back in India in two and a half hours.
He said it was the BJP government that negotiated with the Sri Lankan government and secured the release of five fishermen from Tamil Nadu who were sentenced to death by a Sri Lankan court.
Modi also said the central government saved thousands of women from Tamil Nadua and Kerala who were working as a bonded labourers in Mumbai.
He also said the the central government provides Rs.27 as subsidy for one kilo of rice distributed through the public distribution system in the state, and it is this rice that is being cooked in the utensils of poor people in Tamil Nadu.
Modi said his name or his picture is not there on the rice bags thereby taking a dig at the AIADMK government in the state that brands the welfare schemes as Amma scheme with Chief Minister J.Jayalalithaa's picture on the packs.
According to him, the aim of the central government is to see that the hunger of Tamils are satiated.
Modi said the BJP-run central government was two years old but there was no corruption charge against it unlike the previous Congress government that was involved in scams like 2G, 3G and amd helicopter purchase.
