Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the goal was to make India a $5 trillion economy by 2024. While the goal is challenging, it is achievable with the concerted efforts of the states, Modi said in his opening remarks at the fifth meeting of the governing council of NITI Aayog at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi. All states should recognise their core competence and work towards raising Gross Domestic Product (GDP) targets right from the district level, he added. Recalling the recent Lok Sabha elections as the world's largest democratic exercise, Modi said that it is now time for everyone to work for the development of India. He spoke of a collective fight against poverty, unemployment, drought, flood, pollution, corruption and violence.
Amid several parts of the country facing a drought-like situation, Modi called for effective steps to tackle it by adopting 'per-drop, more-crop' strategy. He said that the newly created Jal Shakti Ministry will help provide an integrated approach to water and states can also integrate various efforts towards water conservation and management.
PM Modi urged the members of the governing council to help create a government setup which works and has the people’s trust. He said, “We are now moving towards a governance system characterised by Performance, Transparency & Delivery. On-ground implementation of schemes is vital.”
This was the first governing council meeting under the new Modi government. Among others who attended were Union ministers Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman and Rajnath Singh. The council, the apex body of the Niti Aayog, includes all chief ministers, lieutenant governors of Union Territories, several Union ministers and senior government officials.
The meeting is being attended by all chief ministers, except West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee and Telangana's K Chandrashekhar Rao. Banerjee had earlier said that attending it would be "fruitless" as the Niti Aayog has no financial powers to support state plans.
The Governing Council reviews the action taken on the agenda items of the previous meeting and deliberates upon the future developmental priorities. The first meeting of the Governing Council was held on February 8, 2015, in which Modi had laid down the key mandates of the Niti Aayog, which included fostering cooperative federalism and addressing national issues through active participation of the states.
The second meeting on July 15, 2015, had reviewed the progress made by the three sub-groups of chief ministers and the two task forces. In the third meeting on April 23, 2017, Modi had pitched for conducting simultaneous elections of the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies and shifting to a January-December fiscal year.
The fourth meeting on June 17 last year had deliberated upon the measures taken to double farmers' income and the progress of the government's flagship schemes.
