400 days left for polls, spread word of our good work: PM to ministers | India News

NEW DELHI: Three days ahead of the Union Budget, PM Modi told central ministers to actively take to social media on the good work done by his government since assuming power in 2014, with particular focus on the poor and the middle class.
Modi said this on Sunday at the meeting of the council of ministers, where several presentations were made in this regard. The message comes barely a fortnight after the PM told BJP leaders and workers to reach out to people “from all sections of society” in the next 400 days, before the next general elections.
Sources said the PM’s reference during the meeting was how welfare schemes such as PM Awas Yojna, Ujjwala and free foodgrain to over 81 crore people had benefited the needy from all castes, religions, and regions. “There is a need to spread these good works done by the government in the past eight-and-a-half years. We are guided by the principle of ‘antyodaya’ (taking benefits to the poorest of the poor). While doing so, there has been huge investment in physical and social infrastructure. The PM said we can take all these to the people,” a source said.
During the over five-hour meeting, cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba made a detailed presentation on the overall work done by the government in social, economic, education and health sectors. Sources said he presented how IITs and IIMs have been opened in different parts of country for benefit of students in far-flung regions.
The copies of the presentation by Guaba and two others, by DPIIT secretary Anurag Jain and Information and Broadcasting secretary Apurva Chandra, were shared with the ministers so that they can go through these and plan accordingly.
Jain in his presentation gave details of the status of various projects taken up by the government while Chandra suggested how social-media platforms can be used to spread the message of the work done by the government.
Since taking charge, PM Modi has been urging all ministers to be more active on social media, considering this has become the main source of information for the young generation. Earlier, he had flagged how some ministers were lagging on this score.