Mamata, KCR to skip NITI Aayog meet today
New Delhi, Jun 15 (IBNS): Mamata Banerjee and K Chandrasekhar Rao- the Chief Ministers of West Bengal and Telangana respectively- will skip the fifth general council meeting of the NITI Aayog which will be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday.
Banerjee had earlier called the meeting to be "fruitless". In a letter to the Prime Minister, Banerjee said she will skip the meeting as NITI Ayog has no "power to support State Plans".
"Given the fact that the NITI Ayog has no financial powers and the power to support State Plans, it is fruitless for me to attend the meeting of a body that is bereft of any financial powers," Banerjee had written in the letter.
The Chief Minister had reiterated her suggestion to the Prime Minister to focus on the Inter State Council which was constituted under Article 263 of the Indian Constitution but with certain modifications.
She had also vented her anger against the Modi government's decision to dissolve the Planning Commission and constitute NITI Ayog after assuming power in 2014.
But Rao will be skip the meeting as he will be busy with an irrigation project in his own state.
This is the first time Modi will chair the NITI Aayog meeting after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) returned to power by registering a landslide victory.
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.