'Boycotting NITI Aayog meeting by some CMs amounts to boycotting states' development'

NEW DELHI: Chief Ministers of opposition-ruled states, who have decided to skip the NITI Aayog Governing Council meeting are seemingly "boycotting the development" of their states, government sources said on Saturday. More than 100 issues of importance will be discussed at the Governing Council Meeting (GCM), and the states that will not be represented will end up losing out, they said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is presiding over the NITI Aayog Governing Council being held here on Saturday. The sources said that during the meeting, roadmap and thrust will be laid out on the issues of making the country a developed economy by 2047, MSMEs, infrastructure and investments, minimising compliances, women empowerment, health and nutrition, skill development, and Gati Shakti for boosting development and social infrastructure. They said the Governing Council meetings give an opportunity to the Centre and states to identify key development issues and resolve them jointly.

In the seven Governing Council meetings held to date, numerous issues were discussed and resolved, the sources said In the last Governing Council meeting, nearly 40 key areas were identified and these are being jointly implemented by the Centre, States and UTs.

For the eighth Governing Council meeting, more than 100 issues have been identified for reaching a broad consensus at the national level.

As per the Centre, the earlier GCM meetings paved the way for the states to develop a modern urban development model in order to address issues such as urban planning, human resource development, capacity building, skilling, urban employment, migration, mobility, urban taxation and governance.

The meetings also helped in leveraging technology to promote ease of living, transparency, and participative governance The meetings have led to directions towards enabling infrastructure and clearances for the installation of national infrastructure such as optic fibre cables and 5G. The aim is to identify and deliver services to the remotest corner using these networks.

The idea of making NIRF ranking mandatory for all universities including agricultural universities was also discussed during the earlier meetings. It was suggested that all higher education institutes should join the NAAC and NIRF and efforts should be made to improve their rankings.

The earlier meetings also focussed on the states and UTs diversifying agriculture so as to improve its viability and promote farmers' welfare. In addition to this, leveraging FPOs to promote exports of agricultural products and laying thrust on exports of value-added products rather than raw materials was also emphasised. In the G20 presidency year, the meetings emphasised every state leveraging the opportunity to showcase their products, culture, and tourism destinations.

The states were advised to develop a mass movement around G20 and provide necessary logistics support. The earlier GCM meetings also made efforts at improving GST collection with a target of recording 50 per cent growth in FY23 compared to the revenue collected in the corresponding period of the previous year

In the wake of the New Education Policy, the past meetings facilitated regular monitoring at the senior level and a clear, time-bound roadmap for the implementation of NEP including the adoption of the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) by all States and UTs.

"This reflects the importance of the Governing Council meetings and the issues discussed during it. And, by boycotting these meetings, the respective states might actually be boycotting the development of their own states," a source said. Chief Ministers of Punjab, Delhi, West Bengal, Kerala are among non-BJP CMs who have decided not to attend the Niti Aayog meeting.