After Congress Chief Ministers, Bhagwant Mann Says He Will Skip Niti Aayog Meet

Jalandhar: After being denied special status by the Centre, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Punjab government has decided that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann will not attend the NITI Aayog meeting to be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 27.

Mr Mann addressed a press conference on Wednesday where he listed the reasons behind boycotting the NITI Aayog meeting and said that Punjab has been denied special status and that’s why they are boycotting the meeting.

“Punjab should be given special status but it has been denied its rights. Our Rural Development Fund is being stopped. Tableau of Punjab is not being displayed on Republic Day. Our share of GST is not being given to us. In whole of the budget, there is no mention of Punjab. So why would we go there,” said Bhagwant Mann.

“We contribute 47 per cent to the food bowl and the ration provided to 80 crore people of India comes from Punjab. 30 per cent police are deployed towards national borders and working for national security still no budget is allocated. Prime Minister put the future of youth at stake just save his own future,” said Bhagwant Mann.

Notably, Mr Mann arrived in Jalandhar on Wednesday to meet people of Majha and Doaba regions for two days and address their issues as part of ‘Doabe Ch Sarkar Tuhaade Dwaar’ scheme.

Along with Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan are also expected to give the meeting a miss. However, as per reports, Mamata Banerjee and TMC’s Derek O’Brien will attend the meeting and “strongly use the platform to hold the Union government responsible” for Bengal’s legitimate dues.

Addressing the Telangana Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy said that his government would boycott the NITI Aayog meeting scheduled for July 27 in protest against the central government’s alleged injustice to the state in the allocation of funds in the Union Budget.

“As a mark of protest against the Central Government, we, the Telangana Government, are boycotting the NITI Aayog meeting to be held on July 27th. The Centre has violated the rights of Telangana. There is injustice to the state in the allocation of funds,” Mr Reddy said in the Assembly.

The Telangana chief minister also lashed out at the previous BRS government in the state and asked if former chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao would address a Deeksha protest along with him for the benefit of the Telangana state at Jantar Mantar in Delhi.

This came in as a response to a challenge made by BRS leaders KT Rama Rao and Harish Rao during a heated discussion in the Assembly about discrimination against Telangana in the Union Budget.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)