PM Modi chairs Niti Aayog meeting, Nitish & KCR absent

New Delhi, Aug 7:  Prime Minister Narendra Modi is chairing the seventh Niti Aayog governing council meeting, which is currently underway at the Rashtrapati Bhawan's cultural centre on Sunday in the national capital.

Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar are the two big leaders who are not present in the meeting.

KCR had written a letter to the Prime Minister, saying that the decision is to a mark his protest against what he terms as the 'Centre's alleged discrimination against states, including Telangana'.

Nitish Kumar, has just recovered from Cocid-19, and has chosen to skip the meeting.

This meeting is the first in-person meeting of the Governing Council since July 2019.

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

The agenda of the meeting includes crop diversification and achieving self-sufficiency in oilseeds and pulses and agri-communities; implementation of the National Education Policy-school education; implementation of the National Education Policy-higher education; and urban governance.