PM Modi takes stock of flagship schemes in last leg of NDA rule

| | New Delhi

Less than a year to go for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday took stock of governance in four-years with the full Council of Ministers, assessed the progress of his Government’s flagship schemes  and discussed with NDA colleagues ways of going full-steam in the last leg of the run.

Farmers distress coupled with their Protest agitation  for higher Minimum Support price (MSP) for their crops  and a party’s defeats in bypolls in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Karnataka also figured in during the meeting held in the Parliament house. 

The meeting  understood to have  reviewed  the progress of Government’s flagship schemes and discussed the agenda for the last year of the current NDA rule. Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Yojana, Ayushman Bharat, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bhima Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, Start-up funding scheme, Mudra Yojana among others schemes came up for the scrutiny and suggestions made that the focus be made to reach their benefits to the door-steps of common people by removing bureaucratic bottlenecks with decibel of awareness campaign about the schemes increased in the last year of the term.

The meeting of Council of Ministers, being held after a gap of seven months, amidst speculations that the general elections could be held by the year-end along with  the four State Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh — all BJP-ruled States — and Mizoram.

Sources said the meeting deliberated farm distress and suggested fresh  steps to provide relief to them through various initiatives as announced in the Budget like 1.5 times higher Minimum Support price  than the cost of production. One of the factor which contributed to the BJP’s last month defeat in the Kairana bypoll in UP was distress among the sugar cane cultivator who did not get their dues despite the BJP promising that they would be cleared within 14 days.

Last such meeting of NDA council of Ministers was held on November 10, 2017.