This Sunday, in a meeting of planning body NITI Ayog, Prime Minister Narendra Modi while addressing State Chief Ministers stressed on constructing the “India of the dreams of our Freedom Fighters” and called on States to think about two major changes in the India of today.
At the @NITIAayog Governing Council meeting, PM @narendramodi spoke about fulfilling people's aspirations and creating a new India. pic.twitter.com/fenh12yWwx
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) April 24, 2017
Coming together for a new India. pic.twitter.com/1pd6hjJCii
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) April 24, 2017
He talked about the idea of simultaneous elections for the Parliament and state assemblies. He pointed out the fact that given the mammoth task that elections are, it will cut the costs down to have all the elections at one point in time, whereas the pattern that the country follows today has Loksabha and State Assemblies elections at different times. Modi stated clearly that political parties could campaign all they wanted and focus on the elections in a certain time frame before the elections, and after that, for five years they could focus on the country and development instead of using their resources to fight another election.
Talked about the need for a constructive debate on holding Union & State elections simultaneously & how that benefits India’s development.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 23, 2017
In my concluding remarks at the @NITIAayog meeting, reiterated our commitment towards good governance & optimum utilisation of resources.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 23, 2017
PM Modi on another point backed the advancing of fiscal year to January-December. At present, we operate on a April-March fiscal year. The argument made in favour of this advancing is India’s agricultural economy. Modi, in his appeal to the Chief Ministers, mentioned that our economy had primary income coming as agricultural money, which comes in after November and December. Therefore, shifting the fiscal year to January-December shall be a logical improvement given that the budget shall be decided soon after the primary source of income has come in. He urged the states to think about it and take initiative in this regard.
It is to be noted that West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamta Bannerjee had her finance minister attend the meeting. On the other hand, both Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma did not attend the meeting. On the overall, the two major changes that the Prime Minister has proposed shall be looked forward to.
