NITI Aayog meeting commences, several Chief Ministers absent, including Mamata and Nitish

The eighth meeting of the NITI Aayog Governing Council began on Saturday under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the New Convention Center in Pragati Maidan, Delhi. In this, many issues including health, skill development, women empowerment and infrastructure development will be discussed with the aim of making India a developed country by 2047.

Apart from Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, chief ministers of several states including Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh are participating in the meeting. However, the chief ministers of eight states did not attend the meeting. These include Ashok Gehlot of Rajasthan, Arvind Kejriwal of Delhi, Bhagwant Mann of Punjab, Mamta Banerjee of West Bengal, Nitish Kumar of Bihar, K.K. Chandrasekhar Rao, MK Stalin of Tamil Nadu and Pinarayi Vijayan of Kerala.

The full meeting of the Governing Council is held every year. Last year this meeting was held on August 7.

It is notable that the NITI Aayog was formed on January 1, 2015 in place of the Planning Commission. The Governing Council meeting is usually attended by Chief Ministers of all States, Lieutenant Governors of Union Territories and Union Ministers as ex-officio members, Vice Chairman and members of NITI Aayog. The Prime Minister is the ex-officio chairman of NITI Aayog.