PM Modi asks ministers to counter ‘false’ narratives, work with states on policies | India…

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked all ministers and top officials to “inform” people about decisions taken by govt to counter “false narratives”, while urging them to expedite decision making at all levels.
“The PM said while the govt has taken several important decisions to transform the lives of common man and people from all walks of life, there is a need to focus on keeping citizens informed to beat negative and false narratives,” said a source who attended the meeting on Wednesday evening.
His comment on communicating the true picture comes from the assessment in govt of opposition’s claims like the one during general elections that BJP’s pitch for over 400 seats was to amend the Constitution— a charge that was dismissed as untrue—need to be strongly countered.
Chairing the first meeting of the council of ministers in his third term, Modi told ministers and mid-level central govt employees to spend 2-3 days every year in aspirational districts.
During the five-hour meeting, Modi urged ministers and officials to learn to work when the country has abundant resources, manpower and experts. The PM said this is a sharp contrast to how the country lived with scarcity.
Sources said the PM emphasised on the need to think big and fast track decision-making for rapid development across all sectors. In a sarcastic remark on bureaucrats moving files from one table to another, Modi compared this with pilgrimage. Quoting the PM, a source said, “Char Dham yatra ke baad humein toh moksh mil jaata hai, par files ko 16 dham darshan ke baad bhi moksh nehin milta (After pilgrimage of Char Dham we attain salvation, but files don’t get this even after travelling through 16 desks).”
Modi also asked ministers and top civil servants to involve state govt officials for seamless implementation of plans and schemes. His remark came after going through presentations of two groups of secretaries on infrastructure and social welfare, which detailed the roadmap for the next five years and for 2047.
He also asked the top bureaucrats to carry out an assessment for restructuring manpower in each department and ministry and also to focus on capacity building of all employees, including the multi-tasking staff. Govt has rolled out iGOT Karmayogi, an online learning platform for capacity building of all employees.
TOI has learnt that during interaction, Union minister Kiren Rijiju said that while earlier people used to visit Delhi to see India Gate, Red Fort and Qutub Minar, now the national capital has got more attractions including, the New Parliament, National War Memorial and PMs Museum. “He suggested that cities with iconic structures or elements should be leveraged in branding them like Paris around the Eiffel Tower. There are around 60 plus cities, which can be developed on that model,” said an official.