Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday asked all chief ministers to consider conducting simultaneous Assembly and Union elections across the country. Speaking at the third meeting of the Governing Council of Niti Aayog in New Delhi, Modi shared his dreams for a “New India” and unveiled a 15-year vision document to achieve it. “States, local governments and all government and non-government organisations should set goals for 2022, and work in a mission mode towards achieving them,” he said, according to Hindustan Times.
The prime minister also lauded the chief ministers for “keeping aside ideological and political differences” and arrive at a common ground regarding the Goods and Services Tax. He described the new tax regime as something that would “go down in history as a great illustration of cooperative federalism”. He said, “The GST reflects the spirit of one nation, one aspiration, one determination.”
Barring West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal, all other chief ministers attended the meeting. At the meeting, Modi said there has been a 40% increase in overall fund allocation to states between 2014-15 and 2016-17. He urged the states to speed up capital expenditure and infrastructure creation.
Apart from working on the 15-year vision document, Niti Aayog is also preparing and a seven-year National Development Agenda and a three-year action plan. Aayog’s Vice Chairperson Arvind Panagariya presented a roadmap to achieve economic and social targets. During the closing address, Modi said the 15-year vision document was a draft and will only be finalised after taking the views of states into account, according to NDTV.
Modi also batted for a January-December financial year, reported PTI. He said budgets should be prepared immediately after the receipt of agricultural incomes for the year. Currently, India follows April-March as fiscal year.
On the sidelines of the meeting, the prime minister said Kashmiri students studying in different universities across the country should feel safe wherever they went. His comment comes in the backdrop of widespread hostility against people from the Valley who are living in different states in the country. Earlier, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had made a similar statement.
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