Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 22: Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today left for New Delhi to attend tomorrow’s meeting of NITI Aayog, which will be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and attended by all Chief Ministers of the country.
Mehbooba is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior Ministers during her stay in the Union capital to discuss with them prevailing situation in Jammu and Kashmir especially the Valley and roadmap ahead, which is being devised by the Central Government to restore peace and normalcy.
Official sources told the Excelsior that after attending the NITI Aayog meeting, Mehbooba will meet the Prime Minister and brief him on Kashmir situation. She was likely to propose certain steps that the Government of India can take to maintain peace in the Valley.
Few days back, the Prime Minister had chaired high-level meeting of five Union Ministers and top brass of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to elicit their opinion on steps required to tackle situation in the Kashmir valley.
Sources said working of the PDP-BJP Government could also come up for high-level review during the meeting.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh is also undertaking an extensive exercise by meeting Security Experts and those associated with tackling Kashmir situation to ascertain their opinion on devising roadmap on Kashmir.
Sources said the Prime Minister and the Home Minister would take on board the opinion of Mehbooba Mufti before taking any decision on Jammu and Kashmir and in this context the Chief Minister’s meeting with Narendra Modi assumed great significance.
Sources said the Home Ministry has initiated the exercise of involving security experts of various agencies in working out its “Kashmir strategy” as the officers had served there for long time and know the situation.
“Experience of the officers is being utilized,” sources said but added that the strategy wouldn’t be based entirely on the experiences of security experts but the Centre would fully take political leadership on board before taking any decision related to Kashmir.
Asserting that the Central Government was deeply concerned over developing situation in the Kashmir valley including increase in militancy, infiltration attempts, incidents of stone pelting and new trends of targeting security forces during encounters with the militants leading to escape of the ultras, sources said all aspects of the Kashmir situation were being discussed and debated by the Union Home Secretary and a blue print would be devised very shortly.
According to sources, involvement of security experts has been necessitated as the Government wants to avoid civilian casualties during the protests but, at the same time, ensuring that the militants, who are trapped after very hard efforts and exercised undertaken by security and Intelligence agencies, don’t manage to escape.
Sources said the Home Ministry was also seized of the reports which suggested “deep planning” in Pakistan to vitiate the atmosphere in the Kashmir valley and incite insurgents to target local police personnel and their families this summer.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister will tomorrow chair the third meeting of NITI Aayog’s Governing Council which will deliberate on the 15-year Vision Document to accelerate the country’s economic development.
NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya will make a presentation on roadmap for rapid transformation of India by outlining key aspects of the document, comprising a 7-year strategy paper and a 3-year action plan, an official statement said.
The Council, which includes all Chief Ministers, NITI Aayog’s members and special invitees, will also discuss the progress made towards the implementation towards Goods and Services Tax (GST) from July 1.
“During the meeting, action taken on decisions of the earlier two meetings of the Governing Council held on February 8, 2015 and July 15, 2015 respectively will be discussed in detail,” the statement said.
This time, the daylong meeting of the Council will be held at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
At the Council’s first meeting on February 8, 2015, the Prime Minister had laid down the key mandates of NITI Aayog such as fostering cooperative federalism by addressing national issues through mutual cooperation and monitoring of important schemes and programs.
It was also decided that the Aayog will act as the “think tank” of the Government and work as a bridge between the Centre and the States. Later, sub-groups of Chief Ministers and two task forces, one on elimination of Poverty in India and other on Agriculture Development were set up.
The second meeting of council on July 15, 2015 reviewed the progress made by the three sub-groups of Chief Ministers and the two task forces.
The policy-making body has been mandated to come up with a 15-year vision document for a period up to 2030, which will be co-terminus with sustainable development goals.
The NITI Aayog has also been working on a 7-year strategy for 2017-18 to 2023-24 to convert the vision document into implementable policy and action as part of the National Development Agenda.
It has also prepared a draft of the 3-year action plan for 2017-18 to 2019-20, which will be aligned with the 14th Finance Commission award period.
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