West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee interacts with journalists at CM House.

KOLKATA: Mamata Banerjee has decided to stay away from the June 15 Niti Aayog meeting to be presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi , saying that it is a “fruitless” exercise for her.

The Bengal chief minister has written to the Prime Minister, saying that she will not attend the meeting as the Niti Aayog, unlike the erstwhile Planning Commission it replaced, has “no financial powers” and therefore cannot support State Plans.

“It is fruitless for me to attend the meeting of a body that is bereft of financial powers,” her letter, which was released to the media on Friday, read. Instead, Banerjee has requested Modi to “focus” on the Inter-State Council, a constitutional body, and augment its functions as the country’s nodal entity. “This will deepen cooperative federalism and strengthen federal polity,” she has said. She has also urged the PM to amalgamate National Development Council with Inter-State Council.

This is not the first time Banerjee is skipping a Niti Ayog meeting, though. She has skipped meetings at least on three previous occasions between 2015 and 2018 following differences with the Modi government’s policies — such as on land acquisition and appointing central observers to oversee development in most backward districts — or during drawing up of 15-year Vision Document for the country.

However, the ground Banerjee has mentioned in her letter seems fundamental enough to further widen the rift between the state and the Centre ahead of the 2021 Bengal assembly polls.

He letter seems to have struck a political point as well. “You are aware that the predecessor of the Planning Commission was the National Planning Committee formed by none other than Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in 1938,” she writes, in an apparent attempt to touch Bengali sentiment.

Banerjee has also harped on the “bottom-up” approach of the Planning Commission, which used to organise frequent consultations and meetings between Union ministers and chief ministers at zonal level to sort out problems of resource mobilisation.

The Centre, on the other hand, has written to the Bengal government to reconsider its decision and participate in the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY). Union health and family welfare minister Harsh Vardhan has written to Banerjee and her counterparts in Delhi, Odisha and Telangana, urging them to join the AB-PMJAY.



In Video: Mamata Banerjee says no to Niti Aayog meeting