Shun red beacon culture, visit masses, Modi tells BJP MPs

New Delhi, July 21 (IANS) Asking the BJP MPs to shun the red beacon culture, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday urged them to work among the masses and publicise central government's pro-poor schemes.

The Prime Minister's remarks came during his meeting here over breakfast with a group of Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) MPs from western Uttar Pradesh, which was also attended by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar.

"Due to the central government's schemes for the poor, a change in the lives of beneficiaries is clear. 80 per cent of sugarcane farmers in Uttar Pradesh have been paid their arrears," Modi told the MPs, according a party statement.

"The Prime Minister told the MPs to shun the mindset of red beacon culture," the statement added.

Modi said on account of Ujjwala scheme, which aims to replace unclean cooking fuels with the clean and more efficient LPG, the health of poor women's had improved a lot.

"Now you need to organise conferences of women and make them aware them about nutrition," he said.

The Prime Minister said that a Goods and Services Tax (GST) helpdesk would be set up in Parliament Library Building where MPs can get information from the officials.

During the meeting, MPs told the Prime Minister that after three years of Modi government and three months of Uttar Pradesh's Yogi Aditynath government, a new confidence could be seen in the people. They claimed that due to the pro-poor schemes, the BJP's popularity had also increased.

The meeting was part of Modi's beginning of a new tradition where he holds meetings at his official residence with party MPs in groups during Parliament sessions and discusses issues related to development in their constituencies and states.

During the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament, which is scheduled to end on August 11, Modi will meet eight other groups of MPs.