NITI Aayog eighth governing council meets; Kejriwal, Mamata, Maan skip

New Delhi: NITI Aayog's eighth Governing Council meeting, which will deliberate on several issues including, health, skill development, women empowerment and infrastructure development, with an aim to make India a developed nation by 2047, began here on Saturday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is chairing the meeting.

The Council, the apex body of NITI Aayog, includes all chief ministers, lieutenant governors of Union Territories and several Union ministers. The prime minister is the Chairman of NITI Aayog.

Union ministers Amit Shah, Niramala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal and chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Jharkhand, and Madhya Pradesh are attending the meeting, among others.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal boycotted the meeting.

Generally, the full council meeting happens every year and last year, it was held under the chairmanship of Modi on August 7.

The council meeting was not convened in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The first meeting of the council took place on February 8, 2015.