Political / Narendra Modi to chair NITI Aayog meeting

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair the fifth meeting of the Governing Council of the NITI Aayog on Saturday.

The key issues that will be discussed are rainwater harvesting, the drought situation and relief measures, the aspirational districts programme, transforming agriculture and security issues with a focus on the Left Wing Extremism-affected districts, an official release said.

As for transforming agriculture, the Governing Council will discuss the need for structural reforms with a special emphasis on the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee Act and the Essential Commodities Act.

The meeting, to be held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, will be the first after the re-election of Mr. Modi.

Besides the Chief Ministers, the meeting will be attended by Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Raj Nath Singh, Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar as ex-officio members.

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Thawar Chand Gehlot, Minister for Railways and Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Statistics and Programme Implementation and Planning Rao Inderjit Singh will be the special invitees.