‘The Body Has No Financial Powers’: Mamata Refuses To Attend NITI Aayog Meeting Chaired By PM Modi

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday (7 June) said that she would not be attending the NITI Aayog meeting scheduled for 15 June, The New Indian Express reports.

“Given the fact that the Niti Ayog has no financial powers and the power to support State Plans, it is fruitless for me to attend the meeting of a body that is bereft of any financial powers,” she wrote in a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Banerjee has skipped the NITI Aayog meetings on various occasions earlier and has openly expressed her displeasure over the dissolution of the planning commission and the creation of the new policy structure. She has strongly advocated for the creation of an Inter-State Council to strengthen cooperative federalism.

The policy think-tank NITI Aayog was established four years ago in 2015, replacing the Planning Commission. The 2019 NITI Aayog’s Governing Council will be presided over by the prime minister.