Highlights: PM Modi visits Dadra and Nagar Haveli, inaugurates various projects

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a crowd on Monday after inaugurating the Kiran Multispeciality Hospital in Surat, Gujarat.

Apart from a host of inaugurations, Modi addressed a large gathering in Surat on Monday. He also inaugurated phase I of Saurashtra Narmada Avtaran irrigation project.

The Prime Minister’s two-day visit to Gujarat ends on Monday.

Watch this space for Live updates:

7 pm: PM Modi tweets a video of the inauguration of the pipeline carrying water from Narmada to Botad.

5 pm: Modi will be inaugurating phase-I of the Link-II pipeline canal of the ambitious (SAUNI) Yojna in Botad.

4.30pm: PM Narendra Modi breaks security protocol, stops entourage to meet a 4-year old girl on his way.

3.30pm: PM Modi urges people to use the BHIM app to claim benefit of various government schemes like gas subsidy.

2:40pm: PM Modi arrives in Silvassa. He is expected to inaugurate various government projects here, including Passport Seva Kendra and Jan Aushadhi Kendras.

1:55pm: PM announces the government will initiate water projects worth Rs 958 crore, reports Doordarshan.

1:40pm: Prime Minister hails Tapi district, says it is one of the newer districts of Gujarat and he is glad it has achieved remarkable progress.

1:25pm: The stretch from Umbergaon to Ambaji has been transformed and this has benefited the tribal communities of Gujarat, PM says in Bajipura.

“Here, in SUMUL, we see the positive results that can be achieved when Sahkar and Sarkar work together.”

1:20pm: The Prime Minister begins his speech at the public meeting in Bajipura in south Gujarat.

Here, in SUMUL we see the positive results that can be achieved when Sahkar and Sarkar work together: PM @narendramodi

11:30pm: After hospital, inauguration of a diamond factory by PM Modi is being seen as an effort to reach out to the disgruntled Patidar community.

11:20pm: PM Modi speaks after inaugurating a diamond manufacturing unit of Hare Krishna Exports in Surat. He says: “If there was someone who had a clear vision about how India should be, it was Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. He integrated India.”

Modi talks about Surat’s contribution to the jewellery sector, adding that the city has made a mark in the diamond industry. PM goes on to say that the industry should focus on making and designing jewellery in India. “Our aim shouldn’t be just to ‘Make in India’ but also ‘Design in India’.”

10:55am: The Prime Minister inaugurates a Diamond manufacturing unit in Surat.

10:20am: PM says the govt will change rules to push doctors into prescribing generic medicines. Generic medicines are cheaper and more accessible to the poor as compared to branded prescription.

“Even now, I have seen doctors writing prescriptions in such a way that the poor people don’t understand and go to the medicine shop where costlier medicines are sold. “

“We are going to change law to ensure that when doctors write prescriptions they will write generic medicines are sufficient and there is no need for any other medicine... After assuming office, mechanisms were put to bring down prices of medicines even if that meant pharma companies are unhappy with us.”

The poor must have access to quality and affordable healthcare: PM

10:15am: “Our nation was neither built, nor can it be run by governments, kings and politicians, but only by the service and hard work of its people,” Modi says.

“A lot of people have made sacrifices to contribute to their villages’ development.”

10:10am: I am baffled by how clean Surat is. The initiative has instilled the need to keep India clean into the people of Surat: Modi

10am: PM Modi inaugurates the Kiran Multispeciality Hospital, addresses the crowd on the importance of his Swachch Bharat project.

Inaugurating Surat hospital built by a Patidar trust, Modi says breakfast sent by a Patel family shows they still care for him. The Patidar community, led by Hardik Patel, had launched protests last year demanding reservation.