Ahead of his visit to Paris to attend the global climate summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday called for energy conservation and the need to push solar energy and LED bulbs. He also touched upon topics such as organic fertiliser, MUDRA Bank among others.

In his monthly ‘Mann Ki Baat’ radio broadcast to the nation, Modi expressed concern over climate change, global warming and natural disasters, also making special mention of the recent heavy rains in Tamil Nadu, which has claimed 170 lives so far.

“Energy conservation is the first solution to stop rising temperature. This is everyone’s responsibility and concern,” he said.

In this context, Modi said his government was running many schemes for energy conservation, such as the LED bulb scheme. “I had once said that on a full moon night, we should switch off street lights for at least and hour and bathe in moonlight.”

TN floods

He said he was “saddened” by the recent floods in Tamil Nadu during the time of festivities, adding that a Central team was there and he was confident of the State’s resilience in getting back to its feet and playing its traditional role of contributing to the development of the country.

Modi also spoke about the burning of crop residue in Punjab that is said to have aggravated air pollution.

“Corp residue is precious. It is organic fertiliser in itself. When we burn it, we tend to waste it. In fact, if we chop it in smaller pieces, it can be used as dry fruit for cattle, the Prime Minister said, adding that crop residue can also be used to make vermicompost.

On the recently announced MUDRA Bank to promote small and medium enterprises, Modi said a good beginning had been made, but there was scope to do much more.

“In such a short time, about 66 lakh people, of which 24 lakh are women, have been disbursed ₹42,000 crore from the Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana,” he added.

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