Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired governing council meeting of the Niti Aayog on Sunday, 7 August, at Rashtrapati Bhavan's cultural centre in Delhi and said that every state played a crucial role in India's fight against COVID-19.
"Every state played a crucial role according to its strength and contributed to India's fight against COVID-19. This led to India emerging as an example for the developing nations to look up to as a global leader," the PM said.
He added that for the first time since Independence, the country's Chief Secretaries met together and deliberated issues of national importance for three days.
"This collective process led to the development of the agenda for this meeting," said the PM.
Some of the key topics discussed at the meeting included crop diversification and achieving self-sufficiency in pulses, oilseeds and other agricultural commodities; applying National Education Policy (NEP) in school and higher education, and urban governance.
Opposition CMs Asked Centre Not To Force Its Policies
Chief ministers of various non-BJP ruled states who attended the meeting on Sunday asked the Union government not to "force" its policies but to boost cooperative federalism.
Some of the issues that were raised by the Opposition CMs included Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops, support to states in dealing with natural disasters, crop insurance and Kisan credit cards, irrigation facilities, revision of royalty rates for minerals, and the National Education Policy.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee emphasised that the Union government should look into the demands of the state governments "more seriously," news agency PTI reported, quoting sources.
Further, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the Union government should not go against the federal structure of the Constitution, and legislation on subjects listed in its concurrent list should be carried out in consultation with the states.
Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel sought a five-year extension for the compensation paid to the states for revenue shortfall due to Goods and Services Tax implementation and called for revising the rates of royalty for coal and other major minerals from the state.
The seventh meeting of the governing council is the first physical meeting of the Council after July 2019. The Council first met on 8 February 2015.
The council is the top body of the Niti Aayog comprising chief ministers, lieutenant governors of Union Territories, and Union ministers under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister.
Telangana CM KCR & Bihar CM Nitish Kumar Skip Meet
However, the Chief Minister of Telangana K Chandrashekar Rao and his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar skipped the meeting.
KCR had earlier written a letter to Modi marking his decision to skip the meeting as a form of protest against the Union government's alleged discrimination against the states, including his own Telangana.
Niti Aayog, however, responding to KCR's letter highlighting the various financial measures provided to Telangana and claimed that the allegations by KCR do not hold water.
It further said that KCR didn't respond to the requests by Niti Aayog delegations to meet with him.
While the Bihar CM Nitish Kumar is skipping the second event led by Modi after his recovery from COVID-19.
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