Gandhinagar, New Delhi, May 27 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday participated in the 20th anniversary celebrations of the ‘Gujarat Urban Development’ programme, attended by hundreds and thousands of city residents.

Addressing the huge gathering of people, PM Modi gave the ‘Swadeshi’ mantra to residents and urged them to go for Vocal for Local, for making the country Atmanirbhar (self-reliant).

Those who heard the Prime Minister’s speech were left inspired and motivated as they vowed to become ‘active proponents’ of the Vocal for Local campaign.

Many of them, speaking to IANS, said that they will take the Vocal for Local campaign to every household and will persuade all to adopt Swadeshi instead of foreign goods.

Priyanka, a local, said, “We have learnt a lot from PM Modi’s address. He told us that if there are challenges in any work, we must not panic and keep pursuing that with complete honesty. We will definitely get success, one day.”

Another resident, Jigna, said that she strongly supports PM Modi’s decisions and policies.

“India is progressing rapidly. PM Modi has appealed to us to adopt indigenous things. We will take this message to every home,” she said.

Anita Bhanushali said, “We trust PM Modi’s policies more than ourselves. When there was tension between India and Pakistan, the atmosphere in Kutch was not good. But, we had faith in the PM that nothing would happen to us.”

Manisha Bhanushali said that PM Modi’s speech was awe-inspiring for us as he told us about the bravery of our forces and how they pulverised terrorists and their bases across the border.

“Vocal for Local is inspiring me a lot. We have pledged that from today onwards we will not use foreign goods but will use only indigenous goods,” said a local resident.

Notably, the Urban Development Year 2005 was launched as a flagship initiative in Gujarat by the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi, with the aim of transforming Gujarat’s urban landscape through planned infrastructure and better governance.

–IANS

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