The chief ministers have told the centre that either to evolve a consensus or give enough flexibility to the states to frame their own law on land acquisition.

Revealing the stand taken by the CMs at the second meeting of the governing council of the Niti Aayog, Jaitley also said that the chief ministers who missed the meeting should really introspect on the issue."

The council, which comprises all chief ministers and lt governors of Union Territories, is headed by the prime minister. Nine chief ministers from the Congress Party, boycotted the meeting. Among the other chief ministers who missed the meeting are West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee, Odisha's Naveen Patnaik and Uttar Pradesh’s Akhilesh Yadav. Tamil Nadu's J Jayalalithaa also skipped the meeting and was represented by her trusted aide and former chief minister, O Paneerselvam. The land bill was one of the key issues which had brought the Opposition together in the last session of parliament.

The council reviewed the work done by three sub-groups of chief ministers and two task forces under the NITI Aayog.

The government had constituted three sub-groups of chief ministers under the NITI Aayog on centrally sponsored schemes, skill development and swachh bharat abhiyan.

In his opening remarks, the Prime Minister said the Centre and states must move together to end poverty. Pitching for his government's land acquisition bill, he said the political deadlock over land acquisition is seriously impacting rural development, including the creation of schools, hospitals, roads and irrigation projects.

Modi said that after formation of his government, several states had raised concerns with regard to the implementation of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. He said many states had felt that development work was suffering due to the provisions of the 2013 Act; and some chief ministers had requested for changes in the Act, and sent letters to this effect.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday said that it is unfortunate and unwarranted that chief ministers of Congress-ruled states decided to skip the meeting of the Niti Aayog.

BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao said that the prime minister had tried every possible step to accommodate the interests of all the states.

He said that the Congress leaders have decided to skip the meeting for 'petty political reasons'.