Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair the seventh Governing Council meeting of NITI Aayog on Sunday at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi. The meeting aims to “pave the way for synergies towards a new era of collaboration and cooperation between centre and states, and union territories in the drive towards building a steady, sustainable and inclusive India”, according to a government statement. However, ahead of the key meeting, Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao’s remarks that he won’t be present have sparked a controversy.
Here are top updates on the NITI Aayog meeting:
1. The Telangana chief minister – better known as KCR – on Saturday stated: “I am staying away from it (the meeting) as a mark of strong protest against the present trend of Central government to discriminate against the States and not treating them as equal partners in our collective effort to make the nation strong and developed.”
2. Underlining that it was “unfortunate” that KCR has decided to skip the meeting, a government statement stressed, “The Governing Council is a forum where the highest political leadership in the country at Centre and State levels deliberate on key development-related issues and agree on appropriate outcome oriented solutions for national development.”
3. The conference is taking place after deliberations were held for about six months where states and union territories, including chief secretary of Telangana took part, it highlighted. Specially mentioning the Jal Jeevan Mission initiative, it said that the central government allocated ₹3,982 crore. However, the southern state chose to draw only ₹200 crore.
4. The government’s allocation under centrally sponsored schemes to states has nearly doubled, from Rs. 2,03,740 crores in 2015-16 to Rs. 4,42,781 crores in 2022-23, the NITI AAYOG has said ahead of the meeting.
5. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar is also expected to give the conference a miss, people familiar with matter have been cited as quoting in an HT report.
6. Earlier Kumar – a BJP ally – was absent at a dinner hosted by PM Modi for Droupadi Murmu, India’s first tribal woman president.
7. Sunday’s conference would be the first since 2019 that would see in-person attendance.
8. Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday told reporters: “I will raise the issues of water, debt of farmers, legal guarantee to MSP, canal system, cleaning of Buddha Nallah’ (in Ludhiana), BBMB (Bhakra Beas Management Board) and health-related matters.”
9. The meeting also holds significance “in light of India hosting the G20 Presidency and summit next year,” as per the NITI Aayog. “The meeting would also lay emphasis on the importance of the Presidency for India for the federal system and the role that states can play in highlighting their progress at the G-20 Platform.”
10. NITI Aayog’s governing council is the premier body tasked with evolving a shared vision of national priorities and strategies with the active involvement of states and union territories.
(With inputs from PTI)
