CMs of 10 states, UTs not attending board meeting: NITI Aayog CEO | Business & Politics News

The meeting also focused on population management and the concept of zero poverty: CEO, Niti Aayog | (Photo: https://www.niti.gov.in/)

2 min read Last update : July 27, 2024 | 7:27 p.m. IST

As many as 10 states and Union Territories did not participate in the ninth meeting of the NITI Aayog Governing Council, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, its CEO BVR Subrahmanyam said on Saturday.

The meeting was attended by 26 participants, including chief ministers and lieutenant governors of Union Territories, he said while briefing the media.

The absentees were Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Bihar, Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Puducherry, he said, adding: “It is their loss if they did not participate.”

On West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee walking out of the meeting, Subrahmanyam said her request to speak before lunch had been granted, though her turn should have come in the afternoon, according to the alphabetical order of states.

The NITI Aayog CEO added that when her speaking time was over, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh simply pressed the microphone and she stopped speaking and left. Although officials from the West Bengal government continued to attend the meeting, he added.

About Bihar, he said Chief Minister Nitish Kumar could not attend the meeting as he was busy with an assembly session in the state.

Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech at the meeting, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Suman Bery said he wanted states to compete for FDI so that investments could reach all states, especially the less successful ones.

The meeting also focused on demographic management and the concept of zero poverty.

Subrahmanyam added that the Prime Minister wants states to spend more on districts so that they can become engines of growth.

The Prime Minister also appreciated the idea of ’zero poverty’ being floated by some states and said it should be targeted at the village level.

He said that villages can be declared as ‘zero poverty villages’ after assessment, the NITI Aayog CEO added.

(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First published: July 27, 2024 | 7:27 p.m. IST