In the latest development to the row of Mamata Banerjee walking out of the NITI Aayog meeting on Saturday, Chief Executive Officer of the government agency, B.V.R. Subrahmanyam, dismissed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s claim that her microphone was switched off while speaking at the meeting.
Subrahmanyam clarified that every Chief Minister was given a designated speaking time, which was displayed on screens at their tables. He further said that the time allotted to the Bengal CM had ended.
While addressing a press conference after the NITI Aayog meeting, the CEO of NITI Aayog said that Banerjee was requested to speak early before lunch and “it was accepted.”
He said, “The Chief Minister of West Bengal requested to be given a turn before lunchtime. I’m just putting facts on the ground, no interpretations. It was a clear request from their side because normally we would have gone alphabetically, starting with Andhra Pradesh, then Arunachal Pradesh. We adjusted, and the Defence Minister called her in just before Gujarat. So, she made her statement.”
“Every Chief Minister is allotted seven minutes, and there’s a clock on top of the screen that shows the remaining time. It goes from seven to six to five to four to three. At the end, it shows zero. Nothing else happened. Then she said she would have liked to speak for more time but chose not to. That was it. We all heard her points respectfully, and they will be reflected in the minutes. The Chief Secretary continued to attend the meeting even after she left to catch a flight to Calcutta,” Subrahmanyam added.
The CEO also pointed out that as many as 10 states and UTs did not participate in the ninth Governing Council meeting of the NITI Aayog on Saturday which was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The meeting was attended by 26 participants including Chief Ministers and Lt Governors of UTs, he said while briefing the media.
The absentees were Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Bihar, Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Puducherry, he said adding “It is their loss if they did not participate.” Regarding West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who walked out of the meeting, Subrahmanyam said her request to speak before lunch was accepted although her turn would have come in the afternoon going in the alphabetical order of the states.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee walked out of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NITI Aayog meeting in New Delhi on Saturday, accusing that her microphone was deliberately switched off when she started speaking about the allocation of funds for the state.
“…I was speaking, my mic was stopped. I said why did you stop me, why are you discriminating. I am attending the meeting you should be happy instead of that you are giving more scope to your party your government. Only I am there from the opposition and you are stopping me from speaking…This is not only the insult of Bengal but also of all regional parties…” she alleged.
(with agency inputs)
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