Crowd source inputs for budget from common people: PM to BJP MPs

Centre to launch ambitious job scheme on Swami Vivekananda's birth anniversary

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday asked Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Members of Parliament to crowd source ideas from public for the Union Budget for the financial year 2016-17.

The Prime Minister also said the ministries of urban development, rural development and skill development would launch a unique employment generation programme on the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda on January 12.  

At the BJP parliamentary party meeting, Modi said the government’s Budget consultations have become an exclusive domain of having roundtable meetings with industrial houses, economic experts and academicians. He said there was a need to change this structure of engagement to make the Budget-making exercise more “social friendly” by taking the views of the common people. (TAKING STOCK OF BUDGET PROPOSALS)

The PM asked all MPs to spend a night in each Assembly segment of their Lok Sabha constituencies between now and the next session of Parliament. He asked MPs to also visit a Lok Sabha constituency other than their own, preferably which didn’t send a BJP MP. This ‘jan sampark’, or mass contact, campaign will help the party expose the Congress campaign to malign its leaders.

The PM advised MPs that as part of this exercise, they should also seek the views of people on the Budget-making, and return with inputs. The MPs were asked to contribute with big picture ideas, rather than specific requirements of a particular constituency, like a road or a school.

About allegations on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Modi said it was a well-thought strategy of the Congress to defame BJP leaders with good reputation and those who were providing able leadership. According to sources present in the meeting, the PM said apart from Jaitley, the Congress has maligned Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje, Union ministers Niranjan Jyoti and Sushma Swaraj. The verdict of this battle between the Congress and BJP will be delivered in the court of the people of this country, he said.

The PM said Jaitley was as “pavitra”, or pure, as senior party leader LK Advani, who had to quit after Congress allegations on him in the ‘hawala case’. The PM said allegations on Jaitley was Congress’ second “historic mistake” after their accusations on Advani in 1996.