Last Updated on 27/07/2024 by Ankita Jain
After the 9th meeting of the Governing Council of NITI Aayog, CEO of NITI Aayog BVR Subramaniam held a press conference. He said that CMs of 10 states were absent from the meeting. Chief Ministers of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Bihar, Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Puducherry did not attend the meeting. Along with this, after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, NITI Aayog has also given clarification on the allegation of Mamta Banerjee switching off the mic.
On the allegation of Mamata Banerjee switching off the mike, NITI Aayog said that the Chief Minister of West Bengal was present in the meeting, she requested to be given time before lunch. During this time she (Mamata) gave her statement. Everyone was given 7 minutes in the meeting. The Defense Minister had only indicated about the time. We respectfully listened to Mamata Banerjee and took notes. Even after Mamata left the meeting, her Chief Secretary was waiting in the room.
CEO of Niti Aayog said that the agenda of the meeting was developed India. Vision document was presented by Niti Aayog on making life easier, drinking water sanitation and land. Uttarakhand, UP have vision documents. While MP, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Bihar are in queue to make vision documents.
Niti Aayog said that the states do not have a system like the Government of India to monitor these developments, there is a need to plan now for the rapidly aging population after 2047. Some states have crossed this limit. Perhaps they are moving towards a declining population, thinking about managing demography is something we never thought of 20 years ago. The Prime Minister talked about zero poverty. Now our target is zero poverty, so the question is whether we can declare villages as zero poverty.
Before the clarification of Niti Aayog, Mamta Banerjee said in Kolkata that Chandrababu Naidu got 20 minutes to speak in the meeting. The Chief Ministers of Assam, Arunachal, Chhattisgarh and Goa also presented their views for 15-20 minutes. But I was allowed to speak for only 5 minutes. People started ringing the bell and stopping me, I said okay you don’t want to listen to Bengal and I boycotted the meeting and left.