Mamata Banerjee urges PM to call Niti Aayog meeting

After bycotting the first governing council meeting of the Niti Aayog, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to call another meeting at the earliest. Ms Banerjee met the PM Tuesday, when she raised her state’s debt crisis, with West Bengal required to pay Rs 28,000 crores in interest to the Centre out of its total revenue of Rs 40,000 crores, but failed to get any concrete assurances. She told reporters Mr Modi had “promised to look into” the matter.

“We had the Planning Commission and there used to be meetings of the National Development Council, in which we raised issues of the state’s interests. But now there is a Niti Aayog, but there is no system to help state governments. We’re not getting funds under the Backward Grants Relief Fund,” said Ms Banerjee, who sought a governing council meeting to discuss key issues affecting state governments.