June 7, 2019
‘Fruitless’ to attend Niti Aayog meeting, says Mamata Banerjee
Bangla Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote to the prime minister expressing her inability to attend the scheduled Niti Aayog meeting on June 15, saying it was “fruitless” as the body does not have the power to support state plans.
“Given the fact that the Niti Aayog has no financial powers and the power to support state plans it is fruitless for me to attend the meeting of a body that is bereft of any financial powers,” she said in a letter to the prime minister.
“The experience of last four-and-half years we had with Niti Aayog brings me back to my earlier suggestion to you that we focus on Inter-State Council constituted under Article 263 of Constitution, with appropriate modifications to enable ISC to discharge its augmented range of functions as the nodal entity of the country,” she said.
“This will deepen cooperative federalism and strengthen federal polity. May I also reiterate that the National Development Council, which has been a quite burial, may also be subsumed within the broadened constitutional body of the Inter-State Council,” the Chief Minister said.
