Replacement of Planning Commission still under consideration

Financial Express: New Delhi: Monday, 22 September 2014.

The proposal to replace Planning Commission with a new body, as announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is "still under consideration" of the central government.

In reply to an RTI query, the Planning Commission said the final decision, as and when it is taken, on its replacement will be put in public domain.

The Planning Commission was asked to provide detail of its meetings with officials of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) in this regard, copy of minutes of such meetings, and name, structure, address and mandate of the proposed body.

"The proposal (to replace Planning Commission with a new body) is still under consideration with the government... As and when the final decision is taken by the government of India, the same will be placed in the public domain," the plan panel said in its reply to the RTI application filed by PTI.

The Prime Minister is the Chairman of the Planning Commission, which works under the overall guidance of the National Development Council, according to its present mandate. The Deputy Chairman and the full-time members of the Commission, as a composite body, provide advice and guidance for the formulation of Five Year Plans, annual plans, state plans and monitoring plan programmes among others.

In his Independence Day speech, Modi had announced that a new institution with a new soul will replace the Planning Commission.

The new body will lead the country based on creative thinking, public-private partnership, optimum utilisation of resources, utilisation of youth power of the nation, to promote the aspirations of state governments seeking development, to empower the state governments and to empower the federal structure, he had said.

"Very shortly, we are about to move in a direction when this institute would be functioning in place of Planning Commission," Modi had said.

The Congress had opposed the government's move, terming it a "knee-jerk and half-baked decision" and favoured a "restructuring instead of dismantling" of the panel.

Later on his Twitter posts, Modi had invited suggestions from people on the proposed body to replace the plan panel.

"Inviting you to share your ideas on what shape the new institution to replace the Planning Commission can take," he had tweeted.