NEW DELHI: As many as seven Chief Ministers of opposition ruled states did not attend the crucial eighth governing council meeting of Niti Aayog chaired by Prime Minister Modi. The theme of the meeting was ‘Viksit Bharat @2047: Role of Team India’. The meeting was held at the new Convention Centre in Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. As the chairman of NITI Aayog, PM Modi presided over the meeting. According to reports, the key topics of the discussion were related to health, skill development, women empowerment and infrastructure development, with an aim to make India a developed nation by 2047.
Niti Aayog had earlier said that the day long meeting included deliberations on (i) Viksit Bharat@2047, (ii) Thrust on MSMEs, (iii) Infrastructure and Investments, (iv) Minimising Compliances, (v) Women Empowerment, (vi) Health and Nutrition, (vii) Skill Development, and (viii) Gati Shakti for area development and social infrastructure.
#WATCH | Prime Minister Narendra Modi chairs the 8th Governing Council meeting of Niti Aayog on the theme of ‘Viksit Bharat @ 2047: Role of Team India’ at the new Convention Centre in Pragati Maidan, Delhi. pic.twitter.com/6W0igz0WD8
— ANI (@ANI) May 27, 2023
While the meeting saw participation from many Chief Ministers/Lt Governors of all States and Union Territories, Union Ministers as ex-officio Members, and the Vice Chairman and Members of NITI Aayog, seven chief ministers skipped the meeting. Kerala’s Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Rajasthan’s Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Delhi’s CM Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab’s CM Bhagwant Mann, Telangana’s CM K Chandrashekhar Rao, West Bengal’s CM Mamata Banerjee and Bihar’s CM Nitish Kumar skipped the meeting. CM Gehlot has cited health reasons for not attending the meeting, while CM Vijayan has not given any specific reason for his absence. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar also slammed the Centre over the construction of the new Parliament and said that there is ‘no sense’ to attend the NITI Aayog meeting and the inauguration ceremony of the new building. Kejriwal has accused the Centre of turning the cooperative federalism into the joke. The Delhi CM and the Centre have been at the odds over ordinance related to administrative control of the national capital.
As a preparatory prelude to the 8th Governing Council Meeting, the second Chief Secretaries Conference was held in January 2023, where these themes were extensively discussed. “Wide-ranging stakeholder consultations and brainstorming sessions with subject experts, academia and practitioners were held prior to the Conference in order to gain well-rounded grassroots-level perspectives,” it further said.
The 2nd Chief Secretaries Conference, attended by the Prime Minister, brought together select Secretaries from the Government of India and Chief Secretaries from all States/UTs who proactively participated by sharing thematic best practices and policy insights, the release stated. As the world’s fifth-largest economy and the most populous nation, India is at a stage in its economic development trajectory where it can achieve accelerated growth over the next 25 years, the release said.
In this context, the 8th Governing Council Meeting provides an opportunity to create a roadmap for Viksit Bharat by 2047 in which the Centre and States can work together as Team India. This will play an important role in the international context as India’s socioeconomic growth and transformation can have a positive and multiplier effect on the world at large, it said. The NITI Aayog further said, “This 8th Governing Council Meeting is also being held in the backdrop of India’s G20 Presidency. India’s G20 motto ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’ conveys its civilisational values and its vision of the role of each country in creating the future of our planet.”
“The emerging world has immense hopes for India’s ability to provide values-based leadership and its capacity to deliver development at scale. The Centre and States have played a significant role in achieving this distinctive development trajectory,” the Aayog said. India’s growth is closely interlinked with the growth of States. As mentioned by the Prime Minister in his 76th Independence Day address, ‘When our States grow, India grows’.
This will be the guiding spirit of India’s inclusive and sustainable vision for the next quarter century. In order to achieve this vision, the 8th Governing Council Meeting would provide a platform for strengthening Centre-State cooperation and forging partnerships for achieving the goal of Viksit Bharat @2047.