Thin attendance of southern states at Niti Aayog meeting  

NEW DELHI: The Niti Aayog meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi On Sunday saw thin attendance from the Southern states. Only Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Andhra Pradesh CM Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy took part in the seventh Governing Council meeting of the Niti Aayog.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao boycotted the meeting alleging that the Centre has disregarded the principle of cooperative federalism by meddling in the rights of states. 

While Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin wrote to the Centre that he will not attend the meeting as Sunday marks the fourth death anniversary of his father and DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi, Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai had to cancel his Delhi trip after testing positive for Covid-19 for the third time.

At the meeting, the Kerala CM asked the Centre to desist from legislating on the items in the state list. “The Centre needs to address challenges of cooperative federalism,” said Vijayan adding that the legislation on subjects in the Concurrent List should be initiated only after adequate consultation with the states.

Many Opposition states have been locking horns with the Centre over curtailing their rights and ‘bulldozing’ the federal structure.

Vijayan also demanded that the Council review the imposition of GST on essential items and requested to continue the compensation to the states for another five years. He also sought the Centre’s intervention to lift the t restrictions issued on borrowing limits of states as the economy is yet to recover from Covid impact.