Chief Minister Raghubar Das in a meeting with Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his Maharashtra counterpart Devendra Fadnavis shared some innovative schemes rolled out in the State to be followed by the others. The deliberation, first of its kind, happened at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had coined the idea to have a committee comprising the CMs to prepare ‘Garib Kalyan’ agenda for the rest of the country.
Sources present in the meeting on Monday, which took place in Bhopal, said that host of schemes being rolled out in Jharkhand figured into the agenda making exercise. “The CM particularly mentioned about Agriculture single window system and dova scheme having taken up in Jharkhand. The schemes are directly linked to poverty alleviation which can be replicated in other parts of the country as well,” said a senior official accompanying the CM to Bhopal.
The very idea behind the exchange programme was to discuss finer points for the BJP agenda going to be in the next general elections and Assembly polls as well so that all the BJP-governed States can adopt the best practices available. The party think tank is of the view that only its ‘Garib Kalyan agenda’ eyeing welfare of the poor people can do justice to the mandate it received in 2014 and set tone for 2019 battle.
Besides Raghubar Das, Chouhan and Fadnavis, BJP vice president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe was also present at the Bhopal summit. “Talks of ‘garibi hatao aur garib kalyan’ have been going on in this country for years. Congress had come up with the slogan but it has remained a slogan and nothing happened,” Chouhan told reporters after the meeting.
It is learnt that the CMs also deliberated upon various other schemes underway for poverty alleviation in different States, which would be studied thoroughly and cues would be taken out so that development of the poor people can happen in real sense.
“We will submit our report to the BJP president and to the Prime Minister on the issue after which the party will finalise the agenda. The country will be celebrating the (birth) centenary of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya on September 25 and the report will be submitted before it. The party’s national council, scheduled to be held at Calicut in Kerala will then deliberate on it,” said Chouhan who is also the convener of the panel.
The Prime Minister during the meeting of Chief Ministers of the BJP-ruled States on August 27 last had asked them to work in a “mission mode” to make their respective States models for the execution of the Centre’s schemes. The committee comprising Chouhan, Fadnavis, Das and Sahasrabuddhe was formed to prepare the agenda.