NITI Aayog meet: PM Modi urges states to focus on trade, tourism and technology

Chairing NITI Aayog's seventh Governing Council meeting on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged all the states to focus on promoting 3Ts — Trade, Tourism, Technology — to reduce imports and increasing exports.

He said that rapid urbanisation can become India's strength instead of weakness by leveraging technology to ensure ease of living, transparent service delivery, and improvement in the quality of life for every citizen.

Batting for "vocal for local" initiative, he said, "We should encourage people to use local goods wherever possible...'Vocal for local' is not the agenda of an individual political party but a common goal."

PM Modi also focused on modernising agriculture, animal husbandry and food processing to help the country become self-sufficient and a global leader in the agriculture sector. India needs to "focus on modernised agriculture, animal husbandry, and food processing to become self-sufficient and a global leader in the agriculture sector", an news agency PTI quoted an official release as saying.

The Prime Minister also appreciated the collective efforts of all the states in the spirit of cooperative federalism in the fight against the COVID pandemic. He even underlined the need for collective action to increase the collection of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), saying that though the realisation has improved, "the potential is much more... and it is crucial for strengthening our economic position and becoming a USD 5 trillion economy."

The Council, the apex body of NITI Aayog, includes all chief ministers, lieutenant governors of Union Territories and several Union ministers. However, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he would be boycotting the NITI Aayog meet as a mark of strong protest against the present 'discriminating' trend of the Centre towards States.

During the meet, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel reiterated his demand to the Centre seeking a five-year extension for the compensation paid to states for revenue shortfall due to GST implementation.

"There has been a loss of revenue to states due to the GST tax system and the Centre has not made arrangements to compensate the loss of revenue of about Rs 5,000 crore to the state in the coming year, so the GST compensation grant should be continued for the next five years after June 2022," the chief minister was quoted as saying in a statement issued by his government.

When a nationwide GST subsumed 17 central and state levies from July 1, 2017, it was decided that states would be compensated for any loss of revenue from the new tax for five years, he said, adding the timeframe ended on June 30 this year.

Baghel also demanded reimbursement of expenditure of Rs 12,000 crores on central security forces deployed for Naxal eradication. He also urged for revision of the royalty rate on main minerals including coal and also demanded refund of deposits in the New Pension Scheme in the interest of employees.

He said MGNREGA should be implemented in rural areas located near cities and in cities with a population of less than 20,000.

Following this, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi appreciated Chhattisgarh for its Godhan Nyay Yojana in the Governing Council meeting of NITI Aayog. He praised the state government for making vermi-compost from cow dung", Chhattisgarh's Chief Minister's office said.

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said he demanded Minimum Support Price (MSP) for farmers and a reformed committee as there are no stakeholders in it. "I went with a detailed homework today; kept Punjab's issues - biggest being the variety of crops. We are caught up in wheat and rice. Our water levels have decreased to a dangerous level...," CM Bhagwant Mann was quoted by news agency ANI as saying.

"We gave suggestions... India will be chairing G20 from December 1; I've put forth Amritsar's name before EAM Jaishankar as the location where all meetings be held. We'll showcase our culture," he said. He added, "It's unfortunate that no one has come from Punjab in the last three years."

The prime minister is the Chairman of NITI Aayog. Generally, a full council meeting happens every year. The meeting was not convened in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The first meeting of the council took place on February 8, 2015.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren sought a special package from the Centre to deal with the drought-like situation in the state, a statement issued by his office said on Sunday. Soren pointed out that the state faces drought every three to four years due to lack of irrigation facilities, according to the CMO statement. He also demanded a package for development of irrigation facilities in the state.

"This year, the state so far registered 50 percent deficit rainfall, with less than 20 percent of the paddy sowing target achieved. Jharkhand is inching towards drought. I urge the Centre to approve a special package for Jharkhand in a bid to deal with the situation," the statement said quoting the CM.

He also sought necessary instructions to facilitate approval of Kisan Credit Card by all banks. He further demanded more share from the mining revenue generated in Jharkhand.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee emphasised that the Centre should look into the demands of the state governments "more seriously" and no policies should be forced on them. She stressed that there should be a "greater cooperation" between the Centre and the states, official sources were quoted by PTI as saying. She said state governments should not be pressurised to implement the National Education Policy (NEP).