New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today asked his Cabinet colleagues to take up the "challenge" of spreading the message of the government's functioning to people through better connect with them.
At a meeting of the Council of Ministers at his residence today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the ministers to "feel upbeat" of the about what the government is doing and "not get rattled" by the attack of the Opposition, which he alleged was building a "campaign on falsehood".
"Feel upbeat about what we are doing and should not get rattled by the Oppostion attack, which is building a campaign on falsehoods," the Prime Minister said.
The PM has asked his ministers to start visiting their constituencies from the second week of January and spend at least 30 hours in areas assigned to them. Each minister would be tasked with the job to undertake a tour of two Parliamentary constituencies to apprise people of the decisions taken by the Modi government in the interest of the common man since it came to power in 2014.
Modi also impressed upon his ministers to help increase people's participation in preparing budget for central government schemes and wanted "no last minute rush" to spend funds at the fag end of a financial year. "We have done many good things and many other things are to be done. When you meet people, carry the message to the people," the Prime Minister said and advised the ministers to keep handy notes to make right points when they communicate with people.
With the winter session about to end on December 23, the view was that the government should concentrate on "exposing" the Opposition outside Parliament. As a result, NDA ministers will fan out across the country from January to "expose" the Opposition's "stalling tactics" in Parliament due to which several key bills are stuck and highlight the government's achievements seeking to project it as "pro-poor".
Sources said the Prime Minister was keen that the achievements of the government are taken to people in the simplest possible language.
At a time when the government is facing a combined attack from the Opposition on many issues and a spirited campaign by Congress in particular, the Prime Minister told the ministers that they should be confident as a large number of things have been done for the country during the NDA rule which were not done earlier, the sources said.
The Prime Minister also appealed to his ministerial colleagues to work for the poor and care for them through the schemes. "The government has to work for the poor. They will stand by you. Government should be looked at as one that cares for the poor," he is learnt to have said.
All NDA ministers including allies like Ram Vilas Paswan of LJP and Upendra Kushwaha (RLSP) were present, and so were top BJP ministers like Rajnath Singh, M Venkaiah Naidu and Manohar Parrikar. However, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in the eye of the raging storm over alleged corruption in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) when he headed it, was conspicuous by his absence.
He asked the ministers to remain in touch with party workers and meet them every weekend, besides being in regular touch with people.
(With PTI Inputs)
