New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the eighth governing council meeting of Niti Aayog at the new Convention Centre in New Delhi’s Pragati Maidan on Saturday.
As many as eight chief ministers including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal, Bhagwant Mann of Punjab, Nitish Kumar of Bihar, Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao, Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin, Ashok Gehlot of Rajathan, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah skipped the meeting citing various reasons.
Arvind Kejriwal wrote to the PM on Friday, announcing his boycott of the meeting as a protest against the Centre’s recent ordinance which overturned the Supreme Court’s order on control over services. He wrote a letter to the Prime Minister Modi asking “what is the use of attending this meeting, when the Centre is openly making fun of cooperative federalism?”
The controversial ordinance by the BJP-led Centre effectively cancels a May 11 Supreme Court order that granted the Delhi government executive control over the bureaucracy.