Fringe elements can't shift govt from development agenda: Naidu

The government will not deviate from its agenda of development despite negative media "headlines" or actions of "fringe elements", Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu said on Thursday.

"The PM has change the vocabulary of public discourse. It is development alone. All the other things which you find in newspapers, they try to make it only headlines, thinking that they can give a deadline to us but we don't deviate from our line of development," Naidu said while addressing an event here.

The information and broadcasting minister said the government does not believe in the ideology of "fringe elements" which are creating problems "here and there".

"That is not the policy of the government and the country do not agree with those guys...Our focus is on development and good governance," he said.

Naidu, however, did not cite any particular incident or the media report.

The minister's comments come a day after BJP president Amit Shah said that action is being taken against cow vigilantes.

"Everyone has to abide by the law. Cases have been registered and arrests made wherever such incidents have happened,"Shah said.

The comments also come against the backdrop of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 23 urging all Chief Ministers to take care of students from Jammu and Kashmir in their respective states, in view of some recent untoward incidents against them.

Naidu, who also holds the portfolio of Urban Development and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, was addressing a 'workshop on smart cities and informed urbanization' here.

He said the government has approved over Rs 2.85 lakh crore of investment for urban development and housing schemes over the last two years.

Elaborating on smart city, he said the word Smart stands for Sustainability, Managing with citizen participation, Area based development, Resilience to climate change and Technology solution. He said the country has seen a rapid urbanisation in the last two decades. "Urbanisation is very rapid. Whether you like it or not, it has become inevitable and then non-stoppable."