Several Chief Ministers have gathered in New Delhi to attend a key NITI Aayog meeting. The meeting will be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and all states will get the opportunity to present their concerns and pressing issues.
"The meeting under PM Modi's leadership will address various state-specific concerns. Goa is actively participating and has also announced 10 percent reservations under the Agniveer scheme for uniformed services," Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said about the meeting.
The central theme for the meeting is "Viksit Bharat@2047," focusing on envisioning India as a developed nation by the year 2047. The agenda includes discussing the approach paper for this vision document, with PM Modi presiding over the discussions.
While Chief Ministers from all BJP-ruled states will be present today, Opposition leaders have refused to attend citing the 'raw deal' meted out to them in the Union Budget. Among all states ruled by INDIA bloc parties, only West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will be attending the meeting.
Mamata Banerjee said she would be protesting against the political discrimination meted out to Bengal at the NITI Aayog meeting in Delhi on Saturday, July 27.
Ms Banerjee said she plans to protest against "political discrimination meted out to Bengal" during the meeting.
"They say the Budget shows cooperative federalism, but it is biased politicisation. The Budget is total deprivation of states. You can give some special package to your friends but you can't deprive opposition states completely," she asserted, adding that states have to be empowered.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin initiated the boycott, followed by Congress-ruled states like Himachal Pradesh's Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, Karnataka's Siddaramaiah, and Telangana's Revanth Reddy. The Aam Aadmi Party-led Punjab government, under Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, and the Jharkhand and Kerala chief ministers, Hemant Soren and Pinarayi Vijayan respectively, have also decided to skip the event.