PM Modi hails 'team India', says NITI Aayog can bring historic change

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday addressed the fourth meeting of the Governing Council of NITI Aayog at Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre.

While welcoming the chief ministers and other delegates from across the nation, the Prime Minister reiterated that the Governing Council is a platform that can bring about "historic change."

Keeping the flood-affected states in the forefront, Prime Minister Modi assured that the Centre would provide all assistance to them, to deal with the flood situation.

Tripura, Assam, Mizoram and Manipur are the four northeast states that have been badly affected by floods over the past few days.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal skipped the meeting as he continued to stay put at Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal's office in view of his sit-in protest. 

On the sidelines of the meeting, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu met PM Modi.

"I along with the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala have requested PM Modi to resolve the problems of Delhi government immediately," said Mamata Banerjee.

Photo: ANI | Twitter

PM Modi said that the NITI Aayog Governing Council has approached complex issues of governance as "Team India", in the spirit of cooperative, competitive federalism. He described the smooth rollout and implementation of GST as a prime example of this

Speaking on the various flagship programmes of the government, PM Modi said that chief ministers of states had played a key role in policy formulation, through sub-groups and committees on issues such as Swachh Bharat Mission, Digital Transactions, and Skill Development.

Observing that the Indian economy has grown at a healthy rate of 7.7 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2017-18, Modi said the challenge now is to take this growth rate to double digits, which requires more important measures.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the challenge now before the government is to take the economic growth rate to double digits, for which many important steps would have to be taken.

The conference among other things would deliberate on issues like doubling of farmers' income, development of aspirational districts, Ayushman Bharat, Mission Indradhanush, Nutrition Mission and celebrations of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. 

These steps, Modi said, were essential to achieve the vision of New India by 2020.

The Governing Council of NITI Aayog is the premier body tasked with evolving a shared vision of national development priorities, sectors, and strategies with the active involvement of States in shaping the development narrative.