PM Modi reviews his council’s performance, budget

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a marathon four-hour-long meeting of his council of ministers on Friday took stock of the follow-up action taken by the line ministries on recommendations given by groups of secretaries formed by him in December last year related to eight core points of governance namely: good governance, employment generation, education and health, farmer-centric initiatives, innovative budgeting, accelerated inclusive growth, Swachchh Bharat and Ganga rejuvenation; and energy efficiency.

After the eight groups of secretaries had submitted their suggestions to Mr Modi on the aforementioned sectors, the concerned ministries had been asked to take follow-up action on the recommendations which had been shortlisted by the PMO to improve governance.

Sources privy to the development said that the Prime Minister during the meeting was given a detailed presentation on the current status of the follow-up action taken by the line ministries on the recommendations. The presentation was made by Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant.

Apart from this, the Prime Minister is learnt to have reviewed the progress of the budgetary allocation of all the ministries as the current financial year is completing the half-way mark.

Sources added that Mr Modi sought responses from his council of ministers on how they have spent the budgetary allocations of their respective ministries till date.

In May, just days after the NDA government had completed its two years in office, Mr Modi had conducted the first such meeting of his council of ministers, to review their budgetary spendings.

He had at that time stated that such meetings would be held on a quarterly basis. Friday’s meeting was the second such occasion.

It is also reliably learnt that Mr Modi also viewed a video compilation of the various Tiranga Yatras undertaken by his council of ministers in their respective constituencies.

All ministers, as well as BJP MPs, were asked to undertake Tiranga Yatras in their constituencies by the Prime Minister earlier this month to mark 70 years of independence and to connect with people at the grass-root level, with the aim of informing people about 70 achievements of the NDA government.