Naveen Patnaik Says NITI Aayog Can Resolve Centre-State Disputes

"We all accept that the State and central governments are political entities and sometimes there are disputes in the implementation of central schemes. NITI Aayog can resolve these issues like an ombudsman," Naveen Patnaik said in his remarks during the ongoing 7th Governing Council meeting of Niti Aayog here on Sunday, adding that he believes it will promote cooperative federalism and speedy implementation of schemes.

The 7th governing council meeting of Niti Aayog chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is underway at Rashtrapati Bhawan's Cultural Centre in the national capital.

The meeting is being attended by Chief Ministers of all the States excluding Telangana CM and Union Territories, legislators, Lt Governors of UTs, Ex-Officio Members, Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog, Full-Time Members of NITI Aayog and Union Ministers as Special Invitees.

Notably, this meeting is the first in-person meeting of the Governing Council since July 2019.

Further in his remarks, Odisha has been historically neglected in the subjects that are in the central list such as telecom, railways and banking.

"We have the lowest density in all these crucial infrastructures and I would urge the central government to give special focus for Odisha," Patnaik said.

Odisha is impacted almost every year by natural disasters.

"It's important to have disaster resilient infrastructure to protect the state and its people from the vagaries of nature. I would sincerely request the central government to make Odisha a special focus state and allocate funds for disaster proofing," he added.

Speaking about Prime Minister Fasal Bima Yojana, he said the scheme has some implementation issues in the field level because of which genuine farmers were deprived in some cases.

"Nitiayog may study this and suggest ways to protect the interest of farmers," he said without exactly explaining the issues.

Besides, while commending the role played by prime minister Modi as the then Chief Minister of Gujarat in protecting and conserving step wells in Gujarat including the Rani ka Vav listed in UNESCO heritage site, he said conservation and preservation systems has gone huge changes globally both in terms of technology and legal framework.

"I would suggest that ASI should be transformed and AMSAR act amended to make our systems on par with global benchmarks. This will 6 greatly help in protecting heritage sites including our own Konark."

The agenda of the Niti Aayog meeting includes crop diversification and achieving self-sufficiency in oilseeds and pulses; implementation of the National Education Policy-school education; implementation of the National Education Policy-higher education; and urban governance.