Planning Commission members, including its deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, on Monday submitted their resignations to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
“We have just handed over our resignations,” Ahluwalia told reporters at the Yojana Bhawan.
Members of the Planning Commission include Abhijit Sen, Kirit Parikh, Anwar-ul Hoda, VL Chopra, B Mungekar, Syeda Hameed, BN Yugandhar and BK Chaturvedi.
As a practice, the Planning Commission members, who are appointed by the Prime Minister, resign after completion of the term of the government.
The Commission will be reconstituted by the new UPA government and there is a possibility that the government might re-appoint some of the members.
Describing the outcome of elections for the 15th Lok Sabha as “very good”, Ahluwalia remained non-committal on his prospects of becoming the finance minister while describing reports on this as “speculation”.
“I am not making any comments on these sorts of press speculation,” he said.
Under the leadership of Ahluwalia, the Planning Commission formulated the ambitious Eleventh Five Year Plan that sought to raise the economic growth to 9 per cent during 2007-12.
However, the economic crisis that hit the economies of the world adversely impacted the performance of the Eleventh Plan. The economic growth rate during 2008-09, the second year of the Eleventh Plan, slipped to around 6.5-6.7 per cent from 9 per cent a year ago.
{{/usCountry}}However, the economic crisis that hit the economies of the world adversely impacted the performance of the Eleventh Plan. The economic growth rate during 2008-09, the second year of the Eleventh Plan, slipped to around 6.5-6.7 per cent from 9 per cent a year ago.
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