Scrap NITI Aayog, bring back Planning Commission: Mamata Banerjee

In Delhi to attend a NITI Aayog meeting on July 27, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday, 26 July, said the public policy think tank brought by the Modi government should be scrapped and the Planning Commission restored.

Banerjee, who is set to attend the NITI Aayog meeting even as most INDIA bloc chief ministers have decided to give it a miss, said she felt their voices should be raised on a common platform.

"They (BJP) have formed the government but they don't have people's mandate. This is the first time after the BJP came in, since 2014, they have not formed the government as a single party.

She said that because of their "compulsions", the BJP-ruled NDA has brought a "politically very biased budget" which "deprives" all opposition states.

"I thought it is my duty to raise this voice at least on a common platform though I know the NITI Aayog has no financial powers," she said.

"Since the NITI Aayog has been planned, I have not seen a single work being done because they don't have any power. Earlier, there was a Planning Commission. As a chief minister... at that time I saw there was a system," she said.

She said state governments had power to discuss their issues under the Planning Commission and it was very good at taking care of states in different areas. "But now there is no hope, no scope."

Banerjee said the NITI Aayog should be scrapped.

"I will raise my voice that stop this NITI Aayog. They do not have any financial implication. They cannot do anything, only hold meeting once a year to show their face. Please bring back the Planning Commission again," Banerjee said.

"It was a plan of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, and since Independence, the Planning Commission has worked a lot for the country," she said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair the NITI Aayog's ninth Governing Council meeting on 27 July which will focus on making India a developed nation by 2047.

Several INDIA bloc CMs have announced they will skip the meet as a mark of protest against the Union budget which, they alleged, was "anti-federal" in spirit and "extremely discriminatory" towards their states.

The list includes Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin of the DMK, Kerala chief minister and CPI(M) leader Pinarayi Vijayan, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann of the Aam Aadmi Party and all three Congress chief ministers – Karnataka's Siddaramaiah, Himachal Pradesh’s Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Telegana’s Revanth Reddy.