Eight CMs to skip NITI Aayog meeting

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has decided to boycott the NITI Aayog meeting scheduled on Saturday, in a protest against the ‘ordinance’ passed by the Central Government which overturned the Supreme Court’s order on control over services. He also wrote a letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi about his decision, saying that , “What is the use of attending this meeting, when the Centre is openly making fun of cooperative federalism.”

“NITI Ayog’s objective is to prepare a vision for India and promote cooperative federalism. But in the past few years, the way democracy has been attacked and the way the non BJP governments are being toppled, is neither our country’s vision nor cooperative federalism,” Kejriwal said in his letter to the PM.

Kerjiwal accused the central government, in the last few years, a message has been sent across the country that if “If any non-BJP party forms government in any state, will not be tolerated. Either they (bon-BJP government) will be toppled by poaching their MLAs or ED and CBI is used to threaten the MLAs to break the government.”

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann will not attend the Niti Aayog meeting in the national capital on Saturday to protest against Centre not paying Rs 3,600 crore to the state towards rural development fee (RDF). Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair the Niti Aayog Governing Council meeting and will deliberate on key issues such as health, women empowerment, and infrastructure development.

Aam Aadmi Party’s state unit chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang said the chief minister had taken up with the Centre the demand to release Rs 3,600 crore outstanding RDF, but the Centre has been sitting over it. He said Mann has in the past met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Union Consumer Affairs and Food and Public Distribution Minister Piyush Goyal in this regard.

“They have reduced our Mandi Development Fee (MDF) from 3 per cent to one percent. Where will the money come for the development of rural areas and the mandi infrastructure? The Centre is discriminating against Punjab…so in protest, the chief minister will not be going for the NITI Aayog meeting,” Kang said.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao will also not attend the NITI Aayog’s meeting. His party, BRS said that Rao will not attend the Niti Aayog meeting as he would be hosting Delhi CM arvind kejriwal who is coming to Hyderabad on Saturday morning to seek support from BRS and KCR oppose the Centre’s ordinance on control of services in the national capital.

Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik will also not attend the governing council meeting of NITI Aayog. According to CMO, the chief minister will not attend the meeting as he has prior programme here.

“Currently, the chief minister is reviewing performance of every department ahead of completion of fourth year of his existing 5th term. He would review performance of three departments on Saturday,” said a senior CMO official.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had already decided that she would not attend the NITI Aayog’s governing Council meeting. Meanwhile, the Centre has turndown the TMC government’s request to send the state finance minister and the chief secretary to the meeting in place of Chief Minister. The Centre “insisted” that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee may attend the event.

Confirming the development, State Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya told PTI, “We had requested the Centre to allow me and the chief secretary to attend the meeting as Mamata Banerjee is busy with some other work. In its reply, the Centre said the ‘CM may attend’. This is an indirect way of not allowing anybody other than the CM to attend the meeting. Hence, there will be no representative of West Bengal at tomorrow’s meeting.” “If the chief minister of the state is preoccupied with some other work, can’t she send any minister or official on her behalf? After all, I am the finance minister of the state and can represent the state. I do not understand the logic of not allowing the finance minister to attend the Niti Aayog meeting,” she said.

The Chief Ministers of two Congress ruled states—Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh—arrived in Delhi on Friday to participate in the NITI Aayog’s governing council meeting. However, two heavyweights of the party— Siddaramaiah, Chief Minister of Karnataka, and Ashok Gehlot, Chief Minister of Rajasthan—are also unlikely to attend the meeting. While Siddaramaiah will be busy in the swearing-in program to expand his cabinet on Saturday, Gehlot, who was scheduled to attend, cancelled at the last minute due to an illness.

Sources in the Bihar government said that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is unlikely to attend the NITI Aayog meeting as he has several engagements in Patna on Saturday.

Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan will also not be attending the meeting, since he will be in Kochi for other events.

— With inputs from Sujit Kumar Bisoyi, Sreenivas Janyala, Manoj CG, Shaju Philip, Hamza Khan, ENS Chandigarh, and PTI.