New Delhi (PTI): As many as 10 states and UTs did not participate in the ninth Governing Council meeting of the NITI Aayog which was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, its CEO B.V.R. Subrahmanyam said on Saturday.

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.

The NITI Aayog CEO further said that when her time was up, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh just tapped the mic and she stopped speaking and walked out. Although officials of West Bengal government continued to attend the meeting, he added.

About Bihar, he said Chief Minister Nitish Kumar could not attend the meeting as he was busy with an assembly session in the state.

Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address at the meeting, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Suman Bery said that he wanted the states to compete for FDI so that investments could reach all the states, especially those that are less successful.

The meeting also discussed demographic management and the concept of zero poverty.

Subrahmanyam further said that the Prime Minister wants the states to spend more on districts so that they can become drivers of growth.

The Prime Minister also appreciated the idea of ‘zero poverty’ floated by some states and said that it should be targeted at the village level.