PM Modi holds meeting of Council of Ministers, reviews ongoing schemes of government

New Delhi: In a first of its kind meeting of the Council of Ministers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday laid thrust on quicker delivery of the government's developmental agenda.

Reports said that a decision had been taken to hold such meetings every fourth Wednesday of each month during which similar review of other ministries would be carried out.

PM Modi is also learnt to have expressed concern over the soaring price of pulses in the over three-hour-long meeting during which the status of projects of some ministries were reviewed. 

Reviewing the progress of schemes of ministries including Agriculture, Rural Development, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Chemical and Fertilizer and Water Resources, Modi emphasised the need to take the government's initiatives to people.

Noting that the schemes launched so far for cleaning of river Ganga have failed to bring effective results, he called for out of box ideas to ensure greater participation participation of people for the success of his pet Namami Gange project, the sources said, as per PTI.

The PM also sought suggestions for improving various schemes and their effective implementation.

A key highlight of the meeting was the Prime Minister's focus on how to increase the production of pulses in the country.

The discussion on pulses saw PM Modi talking about long term measures required to be taken to increase their production and to create sufficient buffer stock.

The meeting also saw a discussion on rural jog flagship scheme MNREGA.

The issue of direct release of wages to workers for its better implementation and empowerment of the states also came up for discussion.

PM Modi also wanted to know why certain schemes could not gain pace and how the bottlenecks can be removed.

Meanwhile, PM Modi also chaired ninth interaction through PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation) earlier today.

He also tweeted about it:

Issues discussed during today's PRAGATI interaction include progress of UDAY & implementation of National Old Age Pension Scheme.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 27, 2016

Discussions were held on significant projects like Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link, DMIC & Jal Marg Vikas Project from Allahabad to Haldia.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 27, 2016

Also called for top-level monitoring of people's grievances relating to the customs and excise sector. https://t.co/iKKdowfvBx

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 27, 2016

(With Agency inputs)