Spread success stories that change lives: PM Narendra Modi to ministers

NEW DELHI: PM Narendra Modi has urged his ministerial team to devise strategies to generate greater awareness about successful government programmes like Mudra bank which has disbursed loans of Rs 1 lakh crore and the power ministry's achievements in popularising the use of LED bulbs.

During a meeting of the council of ministers which reviewed 33 social sector programmes, Modi said information like the accomplishments in the power sector needed to be put out effectively in the public domain so that government schemes were understood and taken advantage of by the intended beneficiaries.

The PM used the example to tell the council of ministers he addressed on Wednesday that there was an urgent need to adequately convey how transformative programmes were improving individual lives at the grassroots. Social welfare programmes would do better once the target audience realised how the benefits were actually remaking livelihoods, he said.

Modi asked ministers to put more energy into the Swachh Bharat programme which he said was catching on. Awareness was in creasing and determined political leadership could make the cleanliness drive more effective, he said.

Modi is understood to have said that party MPs should be made partners in conveying information about the opportunities and benefits that the government is offering the poor to rapidly improve their socio-economic status.

The discussion saw finance minister Arun Jaitley explain that the impression that recent changes in customs duties had made cancer drugs more expensive was not entirely correct as cheaper domestic alternatives were now available.

The PM also made a reference to the decision to set up the Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre and said greater standardisation in sign language would help disabled persons access information and services.

During his presentation on social sector schemes, cabinet secretary P K Sinha said the government had be gun to function more as a te am rather than being entren ched in silos. The ministeria exercise is seen as part of an effort to build cooperation between ministers and a bet ter understanding of shared goals, sources said.

The official presenta tion indicated that the out comes of the programmes ranging from financial in clusion to health, were im proving, prompting the PM to seek suggestions abou increasing the reach and ef fectiveness of the schemes.

Some of the govern ment's initiatives that are seen to be doing well are pro farmer measures like redu cing sugarcane dues from Rs 66,000 crore to Rs 1,860 crore and the health ministry's Indradhanush mission. The Atal pension scheme has al so attracted a significan number of subcribers.

The Centre has been considering how to ramp up awareness of its pro-poor initiatives that it feels can make an impact by impro ving the incomes of the vul nernable.