Modi sets Aug 15th as the deadline

New Delhi, July 13: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday called upon all Chief Secretaries to work towards ensuring that all traders have registered under Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime by August 15.

Modi, who chaired his twentieth interaction through PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation) platform, began with a review of the situation caused by flood and other natural calamities in the northeastern states and assured all possible help from the Central government.

He also urged the Central Public Works Department to encourage all vendors to come aboard the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) platform, a paperless and cashless system to enable procurement of common-use goods and services with the minimal human interface.

"The Prime Minister urged all Chief Secretaries to work expeditiously towards ensuring that all traders register under the GST regime, and this task is completed before August 15," a PMO release said.

It said that Modi reviewed the progress of vital and long-pending infrastructure projects in the railway, road and petroleum sectors across several states and urged the Chief Secretaries to take all possible steps to avoid delays and the resultant cost escalations.

Noting that several of the projects reviewed had been pending for decades, and in one case, over four decades, he emphasized on speedy implementation of such infrastructure projects, the release said.

The release said that the pending infrastructure reviewed are spread over several states including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Arunachal Pradesh.

The projects reviewed include the Chennai Beach-Korukkupet third line and Chennai Beach-Attippattu fourth line and Howrah-Amta-Champadanga new Broad Gauge line. They also included four-landing of Varanasi bypass and four landing of Muzaffarnagar-Haridwar section of NH-58.

Modi reviewed the progress towards resolution of grievances related to Central Public Works Department and Directorate of Estates and asked the Urban Development Ministry to "proactively monitor" them with sensitivity.

He also reviewed the progress of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) and urged the departments concerned to accelerate the adoption of new construction technologies at the earliest.