NITI Aayog needs to be scrapped: Mamata Banerjee

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee calls for scrapping NITI Aayog, restoring Planning Commission, ahead of PM Modi's meeting.

A day before the meeting of the Governing Council of NITI Aayog, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called for “scrapping” the body claiming that it had little use other than organising annual meetings.

Six Opposition Chief Ministers are skipping the meeting protesting the alleged bias in the Union Budget which they claim, only catered for the NDA-ruled States. Ms. Banerjee and her Jharkhand counterpart Hemant Soren are the only Opposition Chief Ministers who are expected to attend the meeting.

“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,” said the TMC chief.

She said that because of their “compulsions”, the BJP-ruled NDA has brought a “politically very biased Budget” which “deprives” all Opposition States.

Speaking to a select group of reporters in New Delhi, Ms. Banerjee said the Planning Commission provided a platform for the State governments, but with NITI Aayog, there is no “hope or scope”.

“I will tell them that NITI Aayog needs to be scrapped. They can’t do anything. All they do is hold annual meetings. Please bring the Planning Commission again,” she said, while adding that the erstwhile organisation had laid the roadmap for the development of the country as a whole and the States.

To several questions on why the Trinamool Congress decided to attend the meeting when other Opposition CMs were boycotting it, Ms. Banerjee said she had confirmed her presence almost a week before the INDIA bloc decided to skip the meeting in protest. She also underlined that she came to know about the INDIA bloc’s decision to boycott the meeting, only through the media reports. Her statement is at odds with the fact that Trinamool leaders were part of the meeting where this idea was first mooted. “They (NITI Aayog) had asked for my speech, seven days back, even before the Budget came,” Ms. Banerjee said.