Planning Commission to be
replaced by a new body?
Prime Minister
Narendra Modi had a meeting with State Chief Ministers. He spoke about the contours
of the new body that will replace the Planning Commission. He wanted the power
and planning to be decentralised and States to be empowered to plan, design and
manage schemes based on what fits them best. This, Modi felt, was necessary because New Delhi cannot tailor the
development plans of States as each State has unique needs and problems. Modi
also wanted expertise and knowledge to
be tapped by roping in the private sector into the new body.
But the question
that arose was what would be the role of the Planning Commission? Who will formulate and monitor the annual
and five year plans as the Commission was doing? The meeting also failed to
tackle the issue of who will allocate and transfer funds from the Centre to the
States for Centrally-sponsored and Plan schemes. It seems that Modi wants
something like a public-private think-tank, which can attract top-drawer talent and also network with research
bodies and universities in India and abroad.
Yes, the present
set up of planning commission is hopelessly bureaucratic. The initiative is laudable even though the
new body in place of Planning Commission may take some time to evolve. Many
Commissions set up by the previous governments itself had advocated reinvention
of the Commission. This non statutory body had not only usurped the powers of
the Constitutional body like Finance Commissions but also had vested more power
to the Centre in terms of allocation of funds. It s time to get the planning
for the country placed in the expert private hands partnering with government.
By observing the
shortcomings of planning commission and considering today’s dynamism there will
not be any improbity to say India needs a new institution to take the Country
to the greater heights. Whatsoever could be the name but the crux is, the new
body should have different wings comprising innovation based research and
development, expert committee for analyzing how the things happening around the
globe, most importantly an executive and monitoring doyen for the
implementation of the ideas in the defined time frame. The Government should
think of forming a body having young and talented people/entrepreneur from
private industries, skilled bureaucrats from Center as well as state
Government.
The drawbacks of
planning commission were felt as early as in mid sixties. So the complete
scrapping of this ornamental body by no means is a misadventure.
It is a right
approach of the centre to entrust greater accountability of development to the
states. The decentralisation of power and planning to states will provide them
greater autonomy in the matters of designing and implementing their own
schemes. Such decentralisation will relieve both the centre and the states. The
centre on its part can hold the state responsible for development and
backwardness of the state, or why a particular state lags behind the others.
The states on the other hand will find healthy competition among one another.
Understandably,
Modi Government is on an overdrive to restructure the Government apparatus and
revamp the Economy. The urgency is welcome in bringing much needed reforms.
But, undue haste shouldn't be shown in pulling down Institutions. The
alternatives should be equally robust and secure so that the transition is
smooth and effective.
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