PM Narendra Modi urges BJP CMs to focus on development

NEW DELHI: The 13 chief ministers and five deputy chief ministers of states where BJP is in power across the country huddled separately for a closed-door marathon meeting at party headquarters late Sunday evening after NITI Aayog's meeting of chief ministers earlier through the day.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and senior BJP leaders -- Sushma Swaraj, Rajnath Singh, Venkaiah Naidu, Nitin Gadkari —too participated in the meeting. The closed-door meeting continued for almost four hours till late Sunday night.

BJP had organised a similar meeting in August last year with Sunday's meeting being the second such meeting of BJP chief ministers. Modi asked the chief ministers to make development their main plank and use technology for its better implementation, sources said.

According to sources, Modi said that the chief reason behind poverty in the country was corruption and the it can be tackled through better use of technology. "Using BHIM App and connecting it to Aadhaar and encouraging cashless transactions can be useful tool to eradicate corruption," a BJP leader quoted the Prime Minister as saying.

Sources also said that the Prime Minister asked the Chief Ministers to implement poor welfare schemes of the central government and also urged them to adopt better welfare schemes of other states.

The Prime Minister also asked them to prepare a vision document for 2022 in view of the 75th anniversary of independence.