After the BJP lashed out at chief ministers who boycotted the governing council meeting of the NITI Aayog, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann defended the decision saying there was no reason to attend the meeting since the last year’s demands are yet to be fulfilled. Addressing a press conference in Hyderabad alongside Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, Mann alleged the central government has not released the amount allocated for Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) and National Health Mission (NHM).
“Hum nahin gaye. Wahan kya karna hai? Photo khichwane jana hai? Maine toh chitthi mein likh ke bhej di ki mere pichhle saal wale bhashan ko iss baar bhi maan liya jaaye. (We did not go to the meeting of NITI Aayog. What is there to do? Just to get our pictures clicked? I have sent a letter that my last year’s speech should be accepted this time also.)” Mann said at the press conference.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday chaired the eighth governing council meeting of the Niti Aayog at the new Convention Centre in Pragati Maidan in the national capital. The council, headed by the prime minister, includes all state chief ministers and lieutenant governors (LGs) of Union territories. Chief ministers Arvind Kejriwal, Bhagwant Mann, Mamata Banerjee, Nitish Kumar, M K Stalin, and K Chandrashekar Rao, skipped the meeting.
“Because what was asked last year has not been given. Didn’t give money for RIDF, doesn’t give money for NHM. They do not give what is the right of the state. Will we go to Niti Aayog to get our photos clicked? They hold meetings but take decisions on their own,” Mann said.
In a letter to the Prime Minister on Friday, Kejriwal said that he was “boycotting” the meeting in protest against the “undemocratic and unconstitutional” May 19 ordinance that restored control over services in the national capital to the Centre under the LG, effectively nullifying a Supreme Court order that handed over control of services, barring police, public order and land, to the elected government.
“People are saying that we should not attend tomorrow’s NITI Aayog meeting. Hence, it is not possible for me to attend the meeting tomorrow,” the Delhi CM added.
The ruling BJP called their decision “anti-people” and “irresponsible”. Addressing a press conference, senior BJP leader and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “Why are they not coming to attend the meeting where 100 issues are to be discussed? If such a large number of chief ministers do not participate, they are not bringing the voice of their states,” Prasad said.
It is “very unfortunate, irresponsible and anti-people”, he said, adding that people of the states are going to be “directly affected” by the absence of their chief ministers at the meeting.
