Niti Aayog members voicing views against cooperative federalism: Stalin

DMK Working President M.K. Stalin on Monday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should rein in members of the Niti Aayog from voicing views that affect the cooperative federal structure of governance.

In a statement issued here, Stalin urged Modi to stop the members and Vice Chairman from voicing views that interfere with the cooperative federal structure of governance and social justice.

Stalin also said if Niti Aayog is to be used to centralise power and take away the power of the states then there is no meaning in Chief Ministers being members of its Governing Council.

The DMK leader was reacting to Niti Aayog Member Ramesh Chand's views that agriculture should be transferred to the central list from the state list.

Chand was reported to have said that time has come to move agriculture from the state list to the concurrent or central list.

Stalin said when the Modi government dismantled the 65-year-old Planning Commission the slogan was cooperative federalism.

He said the central government has washed its hands of when it came to farmers debt and their suicide, and now wants the agriculture sector to be moved to the central list and has also formed a task force to recommend sectoral reforms.

Stalin said the views of Niti Aayog that there is no need for reservation in private sector employment is also an interference in state's powers.

--IANS

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