Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday virtually addressed ‘Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Zila Panchayat Members Conference’ being held in Daman-Diu, during which he stressed the need for connecting with people on the ‘ground level’ and strengthening ethics of good governance to make India emerge as a developed nation by 2047.

Modi said that the BJP workers are the real strength of the party. “The fundamental strength of the BJP is its worker, and worker is a party post (in BJP) who always remains with us,” he said.

Addressing the two-day ‘Kshetriya Panchayati Raj Parishad’, PM Modi said the Zila Panchayat members should contribute to further development in the districts.

Modi added that the Panchayats are the pillars of the country’s democratic system and the BJP workers should work together towards resolving the problems of the common man.

The PM further suggested that the BJP workers equally distribute their workload among themselves and urged them to stay in connect and coordinate through Whatsapp.

“I would want that all of you create a WhatsApp group and remain in touch with each other. Tell others what (development) is happening in your district and get to know about others too,” Modi said.

The PM said that Zila Panchayat members should select three (social) problems in a year and give four months to each of them. “You will see that you will end up solving 15 such problems easily in five years,” he added.

“We believe in organisation, we believe in values, we believe in dedication and we move forward with collective responsibility,” Modi said.

Stressing on using part of the MGNREGA budget for asset creation, Modi said, “Earlier, the grant used to be of Rs.70,000 crore, but it is now over Rs.3 lakh crore. We have built over 30,000 Zila Panchayat buildings.”

He said that MNGREGA funds should be used for some developmental work, whether for building a pond or for earthwork of a road, or a plantation drive.

The conclave is being held at Dadar and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. BJP president J P Nadda was also present during the prime minister’s address.

This is the third Panchayati Raj Parishad conference of the BJP in the last 15 days. The first meeting of BJP’s Panchayati Raj Council was held at Surajkund in Faridabad, Haryana and the second meeting was held on 12 August in Howrah, West Bengal.