“No state is treated step-motherly…”: Union Minister Satish Chandra Dubey

Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India], July 27 (ANI): After the Congress and opposition Chief Ministers boycotted the NITI Aayog meeting on Saturday alleging injustice to states in the Budget, Union Minister Satish Chandra Dubey said that in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, no state is treated “step-motherly”.

Chief Ministers of opposition-led states including Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Telangana, Delhi and Punjab boycotted the 9th NITI Aayog’s Governing Council meeting chaired by PM Modi at the Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre in the national capital.

“Odisha is an inseparable part of India and in PM Modi’s government, no state is treated step-motherly. Everyone will get what they deserve. I will visit NALCO (National Aluminium Company Limited) and will review the arrangements there. A lot of work has been done in the last 10 years,” Union Minister of State for Coal and Mines told reporters.

Meanwhile, DMK is staging a state-wide protest in all the district headquarters in the state against the Union Budget presented on July 23, alleging that Tamil Nadu has been “neglected” in the budget.

Earlier, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party government over the Union Budget and said that the budget seems like a “vengeful act” against the States and people who boycotted the BJP.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while presenting a Union Budget 2024-25, made major announcements for Bihar and Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday, including a boost in infrastructure.

Notably, on Thursday, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Stalin was the first to announce his boycott of Niti Ayog’s meeting. Following this, the Congress said its chief ministers, including Himachal Pradesh’s Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, Karnataka’s Siddaramaiah and Telangana’s Revanth Reddy, would also skip the meeting.

This year’s theme of NITI Aayog’s meeting is ‘Viksit Bharat@2047’, with a central focus on making India a developed nation. The Governing Council Meeting will discuss the Approach Paper for the Vision Document on Viksit Bharat @2047.