'It was like Diwali yesterday when we made important changes in GST': PM Modi in Gujarat

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived at Jamnagar in Gujarat today on a two-day visit to the state.

He kickstarted the visit by first making way to theDwarkadhish Temple where he offered his prayers followed by layingthe foundation stone for four national highways projects worth Rs 5,825 crore at Dwarka.

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Addressing people gathered at the foundation laying ceremony in Gujarat's Dwarka, PM Modi said, "Building of infrastructure should enhance economic activities and add to the atmosphere of development."

Speaking on the state of farmers in India, he said,"We are taking steps to ensure greater income for our farmers."

On fishermen, he added, "To make the life of our fishermen better we have to empower them, government will give them loans on less interest so they can buy bigger boats."

In his speech, PM Modi also addressed the topic of GST and said, "It was like Diwali yesterday when we made some important changes in the Goods and Services Tax. I had already stated earlier that we would look into GST for 3 months and make changes, mend loopholes as per the experience.Centre has tried to make the tax simpler. The common citizen of India wants fruits of development to reach him or her. No one wants their children to live in poverty. We want to help our people."

After thespeech, he then moved on to Chotila in Surendranagar district where helaid the foundation stones for a greenfield airport at Rajkot.

Speaking at a rally in Rajkot, PM Modi said, "Once, setting up hand-pumps used to be government's achievement. Today there's a government which has supplied Narmada's water to villages."

He added, "There was no aviation policy post-independence. We made those policies & took responsibility to connect smallest of places by air.We made aviation affordable and within reach of the lesser privileged."

PM Modi, then moved to thenewly-constructed building of IIT Gandhinagar and spoke about the importance of digitisation.

Addressing a public meeting, he said, "In this day and age, we cannot afford to have a digital divide.We will try our best that there is no digital divide in the country as it can create problems in social inclusion.Digital technology, Digital literacy, and digital India should be the focus of a good government. If there is digital literacy, whatever money we spend on this will reap the same amount of results. Countries are surprised that we have an advanced biometric system like the Aadhaar scheme."

On Sunday, he will give his birth city Vadnagar a visit for the first time since becoming Prime Minister in 2014.

According to his itinerary,he will visit the Hatkeshwar Temple and distribute e-tablets to health workers to mark the launch of ImTeCHO (Innovative mobile-phone Technology for Community Health Operations), go to Bharuch and lay the foundation stone for Bhadbhut Barrage to be built over Narmada River and flag off the Antyodaya Express between Udhna (Surat, Gujarat) and Jaynagar (Bihar).

PM Modi will address apublic meeting in Bharuch before returning to Delhi.

This visit comes at a time when the Congressvice-president Rahul Gandhi toured the state in September with a three-day road trip, criticising the government for its economic policies and failing at deliveringpromised jobs for the youth.