As many as 10 states and UTs did not participate in the ninth governing council meeting of the Niti Aayog which was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, its CEO BVR Subrahmanyam said on Saturday.
The meeting was attended by 26 participants including Chief Ministers and Lt Governors of UTs, he said while briefing the media.
The absentees were Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Bihar, Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Puducherry, he said adding "It is their loss if they did not participate."
Regarding West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who walked out of the meeting, Subrahmanyam said her request to speak before lunch was accepted although her turn would have come in the afternoon going in the alphabetical order of the states.
The NITI Aayog CEO further said that when her time was up, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh just tapped the mic and she stopped speaking and walked out.
Although officials of the West Bengal government continued to attend the meeting, he added.
About Bihar, he said Chief Minister Nitish Kumar could not attend the meeting as he was busy with the assembly session in the state.
Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address at the meeting, Niti Aayog vice chairman Suman Bery said that he wanted the states to compete for FDI so that investments could reach all the states, especially those that are less successful.
The meeting also discussed demographic management and the concept of zero poverty.
Subrahmanyam further said that the Prime Minister wants the states to spend more on districts so that they can become drivers of growth.
The prime minister also appreciated the idea of 'zero poverty' floated by some states and said that it should be targeted at the village level.
He has said villages can be declared 'zero poverty village' after assessment, Niti Aayog CEO added.
Subrahmanyam said the Aayog will finalise 'Vision India @2047' document in the next 45 days after receiving responses from chief ministers of the states.
"The good news is that over the last year, a lot of states have moved ahead in preparing vision documents. Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu have one," he said.
In the pipeline, the Niti Aayog CEO said, "We have Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Assam and a couple of other states lining up to make vision documents."
Subrahmanyam said the Prime Minister made it very clear why the Aspirational District Programme succeeds because it is clear, monitorable and has fixed targets.
A vision document is being prepared to help India become a developed economy of $30 trillion by 2047, the 100th year of its independence.
In 2023, Niti Aayog was entrusted with the task of consolidating the 10 sectoral thematic visions into a combined vision for Viksit Bharat @2047.
The vision encompasses various aspects of development, including economic growth, social progress, environmental sustainability, and good governance, among others.
