New Delhi
Mounting electoral woes of the NDA government weighed high on the fourth meeting of the governing council of the NITI Aayog, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi invoked spirit of “Team India” and reached out to the states for their helping hands in pushing the agenda of doubling farmers’ income in the face of marked agrarian distress in parts of the country and also rolling out of the ambitious Ayushman Bharat, aiming to cover 10 crore families under a health insurance scheme.

With the original mandate of the governing council to deliberate on short and medium-term agenda for development missing, the Centre harped on implementation of schemes, while Andhra Pradesh and Bihar chief ministers N Chandra Babu Naidu and Nitish Kumar, respectively, stuck to their stated positions on special category status.

With the ruling NDA bracing up for Lok Sabha elections next year, NITI Aayog seemingly appeared hosting the meeting with agenda for a basket of schemes, while conveniently ignoring the failure of the previous meeting to adopt “Three Years Action Plan”.

With any structured document missing for discussions, Modi, while portraying the rosy picture of the economy, sought to address states’ criticism on financing by stating that “the Centre has given Rs 11 lakh crore to the states, which is Rs 6 lakh crore more than the previous government”. While complimenting the states for the successful rollout of the Goods and Services Tax , Modi pitched for a similar effort in realising the aim for doubling the farmers’ income, besides launching the Ayushman Bharat.

Naidu on his turn raised the issue of the Centre not keeping the commitment to grant the special category status to Andhra Pradesh upon bifurcation of the state. He accused the government of misleading the people by confusing special category status with special area assistance given to the state. Bihar CM backed Naidu’s take on special category status and revived his own old demand.

Meanwhile, showing a short of opposition unity, the Chief Ministers of non-BJP ruled states firmly contended that the Centre should follow cooperative federalism and not “unnecessarily interfere” in state affairs.

Confronting the Centre on various issues like 15th Finance Commission report and distribution of Central funding, the opposition Chief Ministers also attacked the Centre for what they termed “weakening the federal structure of the constitution.”

The Prime Minister, however, on his part urged the Chief Ministers to “give fresh ideas” to the 15th Finance Commission for incentivising outcome- based allocations and expenditure correction.

Observing that the Indian economy has grown at a healthy rate of 7.7% in the fourth quarter of 2017-18, Modi said the “challenge now is to take this growth rate to double digits for which many more steps have to be taken”.

The conference deliberated on issues such as doubling of farmers’ income, development of aspirational districts, Ayushman Bharat, Mission Indradhanush, Nutrition Mission and celebrations of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. And, the Prime Minister said, these steps are essential for achieving the vision of New India by 2020.