Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the 7th Governing Council meeting of NITI Aayog. Various issues like crop diversification, urban development and implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) were discussed in the meeting. Let us tell you that this is the first meeting of the council after July 2019 in which all the participants were present face to face. The Governing Council is the apex body of NITI Aayog and consisted of Chief Ministers of States, Lieutenant Governors of Union Territories and several Union Ministers.

The meeting was attended by Union Ministers Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh, S Jaishankar as well as Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Assam. It is noteworthy that Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is boycotting this meeting. Usually the full council meets every year. But due to the Kovid-19 epidemic, the meeting was not called in the year 2020.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel also appeared in the 7th Governing Council meeting of NITI Aayog. Making his demand here, he said that MNREGA should be implemented in rural areas located near cities and cities with population less than 20,000. In the meeting, CM Baghel also raised the issue of GST compensation in the meeting. The CMO has given information in this regard. During the meeting of NITI Aayog, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel urged for revision of royalty rate on major minerals including coal and also demanded refund of the amount deposited in the new pension scheme in the interest of the employees.

It was told on behalf of Chhattisgarh CMO that in the meeting of NITI Aayog, CM Baghel also demanded reimbursement of Rs 12,000 crore expenditure on central security forces deployed for Naxal eradication.