Chandigarh: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was in Hussianiwala to pay tribute to freedom fighters Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru, reiterated that there is an effort to mislead the farmers of the country.

In his speech at Ferozepur, the Prime Minister said, “I spoke about this in my radio programme Mann Ki Baat. If the country has to develop, the farmer has to develop. If there is no development, the sons of the farmers will have to focus on winning their daily bread. I ask the sons of the farmers, do you want to live in the slums of Mumbai or Delhi?”

Hitting out at the Congress on the corruption issue, the Prime Minister said, “The amount of corruption in this country probably disturbs Bhagat Singh’s soul. We are here to give you a corruption-free government. Just in the auction of coal blocks, lakhs of crores were lost to corruption.”

The NDA government, he said, auctioned only 18 mines and has managed to ensure `2 lakh crore from the sale.

“When the CAG concluded that the loss was to the tune of `1.86 lakh crore, there was disbelief about such a huge figure. There was also a ‘zero loss theory’,” he said targeting the previous UPA ministers who had contended so.

“Out of 204 coal blocks cancelled, only 20 have been auctioned so far and more than 180 are still left. Since an honest government is in place, `2 lakh crore was deposited in the national treasury on account of auction of these 20 coal blocks,” Mr Modi said, adding that it will benefit the poor.

He also talked about the “crisis” being faced by farmers, first on account of deficit rainfall last year and now due to hailstorm, and promised to do all that his government can along with the states.

Mr Modi said he had told his ministers to get an assessment conducted of the losses.