NEW DELHI, March 27: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday reviewed with chief ministers of all but poll-bound states their preparedness and plans in the wake of the West Asia conflict.
The virtual meeting was aimed at ensuring synergy of efforts in the spirit of ‘Team India’, official sources said.
This is the first time that the prime minister held such a meeting with the chief ministers on the West Asia conflict which started on February 28 with the attack by the US-Israel on Iran. Iran also retaliated by firing on its Gulf neighbours and Israel.
Those chief ministers who attended the meeting included N Chandra Babu Naidu (Andhra Pradesh), Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh), Revanth Reddy (Telangana), Bhagwant Mann (Punjab), Bhupendra Patel (Gujarat), Omar Abdullah (Jammu and Kashmir), Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu (Himachal Pradesh), Pema Khandu (Arunachal Pradesh) among others.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah were also present in the meeting.
“The prime minister interacted with the chief ministers through video conferencing on the West Asia conflict and reviewed preparedness and plans of the states. The meeting focused on ensuring synergy of efforts in the spirit of Team India,” a source said.The chief ministers of election-bound states were not part of this meeting due to the Model Code of Conduct (MCC).The Cabinet Secretariat is going to hold a separate meeting with the chief secretaries of poll-bound Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam, Kerala and the Union Territory of Puducherry.
On March 25, the government held an all-party meeting to brief the leaders of the political parties about the West Asia situation, where a detailed presentation was given about the steps taken by the government to deal with the situation.
While making a statement in Lok Sabha on March 23, the prime minister had said that the difficult global conditions caused by the West Asia conflict are likely to persist for a long time and called upon the nation to remain prepared and united, just as it had stood together during the COVID-19 pandemic.Modi also drew the attention of the House to the internal security dimension of the crisis, warning that certain elements attempt to exploit such situations. (PTI)
