First NITI Aayog meet under Modi 2.0 begins

PM Narendra Modi is heading the governing council meet of the government think tank-NITI Aayog. The last meeting of the council was held on June 17, 2018, in which they deliberated upon measures taken to double farmers' income and the progress of the government's flagship schemes.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is heading the fifth meeting of the Niti Aayog's Governing Council on Saturday. Focus will be on issues like drought situation, farm distress, rain-water harvesting and preparedness for Kharif crops.

The five-point agenda for the meeting also includes aspirational district programme, transforming agriculture and security related issues with special focus on left-wing extremism (LWE) districts, an official statement said.

The meeting,is being held at Rashtrapati Bhavan, and is being attended by Chief Ministers, Lieutenant Governors of Union Territories, several union ministers and senior government officials.

Several political leaders are skipping the meet including the likes of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao claiming that the meeting is "fruitless."

This is the first governing council meeting under the new Modi government.

Headed by the Prime Minister, the Governing Council includes ministers of Finance, Home, Defence, Agriculture, Commerce and Rural Development, besides state chief ministers and Niti Aayog vice chairman, CEO and members.

The Governing Council reviews the action taken on the agenda items of the previous meeting and deliberates upon the future developmental priorities.

So far, four meetings of the Governing Council have been held under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister.

The first meeting of the Governing Council was held on February 8, 2015, at which the Prime Minister laid down the key mandates of Niti Aayog such as fostering cooperative federalism and addressing national issues through active participation of the states.

The second meeting on July 15, 2015 reviewed the progress made by the three sub-groups of chief ministers and the two task forces.

In the third meeting on April 23, 2017, Modi had pitched for conducting simultaneous elections of the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies and shifting to a January-December fiscal year.

The fourth meeting of the council on June 17, 2018 deliberated upon measures taken to double farmers' income and the progress of the government's flagship schemes.

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