In the first 'Pragati' review meeting of his second term in office, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated on Wednesday his government's commitment for the "Housing for All by 2022" mission and urged bureaucrats to remove hurdles to achieve the objective. He also called upon states to put in maximum efforts towards water conservation, especially during the current monsoon season, according to an official statement. This was the first meeting of Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation (Pragati) in Modi's second term in office. Twenty-nine such meetings in the previous term of the government saw a cumulative review of 257 projects with a total investment of over Rs 12 lakh crore. On Wednesday, the prime minister reviewed the progress in resolution of grievances related to the PM Awas Yojana (Urban). He underlined the resolve of his government to ensure that no family will be left without a home by 2022, and exhorted the officers to work diligently towards this objective, and remove all hurdles coming in the way. Towards this end, Modi also reviewed the resolution of public grievances related to the Department of Financial Services. The PM also reviewed the working of the government's ambitious heath insurance scheme Ayushman Bharat. He was informed that around 35 lakh beneficiaries have availed of hospital admissions and over 16,000 hospitals have joined the scheme so far. The prime minister called for dialogue with states which could help in evolving best practices and further improvements in the scheme. He said a study should be done on the benefits and positive impact of the scheme, especially in "aspirational districts", an official term for underdeveloped districts. He sought to know what steps are being taken to curb occasional cases of fraud and misuse in this scheme. Reviewing the progress in Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan, the prime minister called for use of technology to evolve a mechanism to collect feedback from differently-abled on accessibility issues being faced by them in public premises. Emphasizing the importance of Jal-Shakti, the Prime Minister called upon states to put in maximum efforts towards water conservation, especially during the current monsoon season. He reviewed the progress of eight important infrastructure projects in the railway and road sectors. These projects are spread over several states including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, the statement said.
