PM meets MPs from northern states

New Delhi, Jul 25: BJP MPs from northern region including poll-bound Haryana on Friday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and shared their views on a range of issues, including those related to party organisation, government functioning and their experiences as people's representatives.

The meeting took place at a time when BJP is preparing for assembly elections in Haryana and has to decide the future course of action in Delhi which is currently under President's rule. BJP's youth wing chief Anurag Thakur told PTI that party MPs from Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Haryana along with Chandigarh met Modi and "we were able to discuss a lot of issues with the Prime Minister".

"He was very open about the various issues --how the MPs were feeling after getting into Parliament, about the functioning of the government. All of us discussed many issues of local as well as national interest. Matters regarding the organisation were also discussed," the MP from Himachal Pradesh said.

Thanking the Prime Minister for meeting MPs from the northern states, he said, "I think it is going to bridge the gap between the MPs and the government". When asked about the Prime Minister's response to the issues raised by the members, Thakur said, "He shared his views on many issues which were raised by MPs."

Asked whether the members raised the issue of people from Punjab who were held captive in war-torn Iraq, he said, "I am sure that government will work for the people who are stuck in Iraq and the Prime Minister was also concerned about these things.

"The government has done very well in the last two months by evacuating more than 3000 people from Iraq and he has assured that everyone will be evacuated."

Of the 41 people held captive in the strife-torn country, 31 belong to Punjab, four each to Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh and two to West Bengal.

"We need to congratulate the government for evacuating more than 3000 people from Iraq to India and very successfully the 46 nurses, they have been brought back from the clutches of terrorists. It is a great achievement of the government," he said.

PTI