Odisha finance minister denied entry to Niti Aayog meet

Meeting was convened to deliberate on Land Acquisition Bill and implementation of GST

Odisha faced a major embarrassment today when its finance minister Pradip Amat was denied entry to the venue of the Niti Aayog meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Amat was to represent Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who had decided to skip the meeting and instead deputed his Cabinet colleague to attend the all-important meeting. But since entry pass was provided only to chief ministers of states who are members of the Niti Aayog Governing Council, Amat was denied the pass.

Patnaik decided to give the meeting a miss citing his busy schedule to oversee the arrangements for Nabakalebar festival of presiding deities of Puri Jagannath temple, particularly the Rath Yatra on July 18.

The Niti Aayog meeting was convened to deliberate on Land Acquisition Bill and implementation of Goods and Service Tax (GST), both issues where the Modi government was seeking support of state governments.

The denial of pass to Amat has evoked strong reaction from BJD stalwart and excise & cooperation minister Damodar Rout.

“Denial of pass to Amat is unfortunate. Amat had gone to attend the meeting in line with the federal arrangement that we have. Provision of pass to Amat was the responsibility of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO),” he said.

BJD spokesperson and former minister Pratap Keshari Deb clarified Amat did not go to the venue since he did not possess the requisite pass.

“Last evening, we received the communication from the PMO that only chief ministers are provided entry pass for the Niti Aayog meeting. Hence, Amat did not attend the meeting. Instead, the finance minister has gone to New Delhi to attend an important meeting on e-commerce convened by Union commerce & industry minister,” Deb said.

Senior BJP leader Suresh Pujari, however, blamed the chief minister for the fiasco.

“Meetings of the Niti Aayog are very important. The chief minister himself need to have attended the meeting. But he sent Amat. This is not just an embarrassment for Amat but for the entire state and the chief minister is to be blamed,” he said.