New Delhi: Following up on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Independence Day announcement that the Planning Commission would be replaced, the government, Thursday, renamed the plan panel as 'Neeti Ayog'.
The renaming of the Planning Commission is being seen as the first step towards replacing it with a new-age institution.
The Prime Minister had called meeting of all chief ministers recently to deliberate on the structure of the new body which would replace the Commission.
The majority view that emerged after the meeting was in favour of decentralisation of power.
Congress-ruled states, however, had reservations about dismantling an institution which was set up by the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and they suggested restructuring of the existing body, rather than a complete replacement.
Incidentally, Nehru himself is said to have faced resistance to the idea of setting up of the Planning Commission, but it went on to become a major platform for successive governments to formulate and push forward economic policies and other development plans.
Finance Minister had then said that a principle of 'cooperative federalism' is being followed in setting up the new body in place of Planning Commission.
"Our government stands by the principle of cooperative federalism, empowering states, least number of central schemes and more state schemes," Jaitley said while replying to a debate in the Lok Sabha.
The Planning Commission was set up by a simple government resolution in March 1950 and has withstood many political and economic upheavals, as also some occasional controversies, including those related to its poverty estimates as also about a huge toilet renovation bill and foreign tour expenses of its last Deputy Chairman.
The plan panel has commissioned 12 five-year plans and six annual plans involving fund outlays of over Rs 200 lakh crore in its 65-year-history.
It was set up initially as part of the government's declared objectives to promote a rapid rise in the standard of living of the people by efficient exploitation of resources, increasing production and offering employment opportunities.
The Commission was charged with the responsibility of assessing all resources of the country, augmenting deficient resources, formulating plans for the most effective and balanced utilisation of resources and determining priorities.
The first Five-year Plan was launched in 1951 with total outlay of little over Rs 2,000 crore and two subsequent five-year plans were formulated till 1965, when there was a break because of the Indo-Pakistan Conflict.
Two successive years of drought, devaluation of currency, a general rise in prices and erosion of resources disrupted the planning process and after three Annual Plans between 1966 and 1969, the fourth Five-year plan was started in 1969.
The Eighth Plan could not take off in 1990 due to the fast changing political situation at the Centre and the years 1990-91 and 1991-92 were treated as Annual Plans. The Eighth Plan was finally launched in 1992.
For the first eight Plans, the emphasis was on a growing public sector with massive investments in basic and heavy industries, but since the launch of the 9th Plan in 1997, the emphasis on the public sector has become less pronounced and the current thinking on planning in the country, in general, is that it should increasingly be of an indicative nature.
