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Uttar Pradesh govt to take NITI Aayog’s help to restructure state planning dept
A NITI Aayog team, led by vice-chairman Suman Bery and chief executive officer Parameswaran Iyer, met chief minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow on July 21 to discuss this matter
The Uttar Pradesh government has proposed to take assistance from NITI Aayog, India’s apex public policy think tank, to restructure the state’s planning commission as a top expert policy planning body going ahead. Officials and researchers from the state planning department may soon be sent to NITI Aayog for a week-long training process after constructive talks between the state government and NITI Aayog.
“We are planning a week-long attachment of our officials and researchers with NITI Aayog. This will help our teams know how the consultants and researchers function at NITI Aayog and the same experience may come in handy when they work in the state. We will also take NITI Aayog’s help in the long run in restructuring the planning department,” said Alok Kumar, secretary of the UP planning department.
A NITI Aayog team, led by vice-chairman Suman Bery and chief executive officer Parameswaran Iyer, met chief minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow on July 21 to discuss this matter, and extended support through technical cooperation for the plan.
Bery said Uttar Pradesh could play a key role in achieving India’s sustainable development goals (SDGs). The UP team has so far held meetings with Shekhar Bonu, a former IAS officer of the 1987-batch, who has experience of working with the NITI Aayog.
“Yes, we propose to take help of NITI Aayog in capacity building, research and bringing about an improvement in the quality of evaluation and monitoring as well,” Kumar said.
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Meanwhile, senior UP government officials did not comment on whether this will lead to the setting up of a ‘state NITI Aayog’.
The state government, while presenting its annual budget for 2020-21, had announced plans to set up a ‘state NITI Aayog’. However, no action has been taken till now in that regard.
The Uttar Pradesh government proposed the setting up of the ‘state NITI Aayog’ to shift focus from planning to policy formulation, and replace the state planning department that was set up under the chairmanship of the chief minister in 1972 to assess the state’s physical, financial and manpower resources.
It drafted annual, and five-year, plans and ensured conformity of the state’s objectives with that of the nation’s. However, the state planning commission lost its relevance after the Narendra Modi government on January 1, 2015 decided to do away with the Planning Commission of India and set up the National Institution for Transforming India – the NITI Aayog – as a policy think tank.
“An expert advice by the NITI Aayog in formulation, implementation and monitoring of development programmes, along with capacity building, would be beneficial and should result in a better outcome. It also underlines the need to expedite the setting up of the state NITI Ayog,” professor Yashvir Tyagi, former head of the department of economics at Lucknow University, said.
The state planning department has already divided its research and evaluation teams into 10 sectors, attached to agriculture, sugarcane development, information technology and industry sectors, etc.
“With this, the state planning department will be able to develop expertise and links with different sectors, and give inputs on implementation of various government policies and schemes,” Kumar added.
