Prime Minister Narendra Modi charmed the residents of Jayapur, a village he has adopted under the Sansad Adarsh gram Yojana scheme for MPs. While making connecting with the cheering crowd, Mr. Modi said that he had come there with a request to adopt him.

“It's a privilege to be associated with Jayapur village. I am not adopting Jayapur but I request you to adopt your MP,” said Mr. Modi who flew to Jayapur after stopping in Varanasi, his parliamentary constituency, where he urged residents to think of him as their "sevak".

Mr. Modi is on a visit to Varanasi which is also the first visit of the Prime Minister to his parliamentary constituency since it voted him in the May General Election.

“We have introduced Sansad Adarsh gram Yojana scheme for MPs, even I had to take responsibility as part of this. Jayapur took special place in my heart long time ago. An MP does not adopt a village. A village adopts an MP,” the Prime Minister further added.

The Prime Minister also explained why he chose Jayapur, a village about 25 kilometers from the ancient temple town of Varanasi.

“I selected this village for a very small reason. I want to share it with you . Jayapur was the first village that I had heard of in Varanasi, that too when tragedy struck the village. Therefore have adopted it,”

While talking about the collective responsibility to change and develop villages, Mr. Modi said one need not be dependent on governments for everything.

“People should not rely on schemes alone for the development of villages, they should also take initiatives: I want to create a mentality to work for development of people who have helped us move forward,” the Prime Minister said while proposing the idea of celebrating birth day of a village, an occasion which will go a long way in “ending” the caste system.

“When everybody will celebrate the birthday of a village, it will also end the caste system. Those who have left the village for studies or jobs must come back to celebrate the birthday of their village,” he said.

Mr. Modi talked about celebrating the birthday of a girl child as festival and developing a sense of public awareness about mandatory washing before having food.

“Let us decide that no child will eat without washing hands in our village. Do we need any govt to do this!” he asked the impressive crowd which was raising slogans

He also said that he was not born to talk about big things. “It is through small things that I intend to do big things,”

But the speech was also sprinkled with scattered but veiled attacks on the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh through references to “potholes” on the road and programmes made by people in Lucknow.

While launching power loom service centres earlier in the day he criticised the State government for not allotting land inside Varanasi.

"This centre is outside Kashi. We wanted it to be near the city but we could not get the desired land from the State government so have come slightly away from city," added the Prime Minister.

While addressing the community of weavers he talked about a “comprehensive” vision to develop, modernize and upgrade textile industry.