PM asks plan panel to revise its 12th plan

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked the Planning Commission to revise its 12th plan document after several ministries opposed the allocation and also described the targets as highly "optimistic" and "unrealistic."

Updated on: Sep 16, 2012, 01:13:00 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked the Planning Commission to revise its 12th plan document after several ministries opposed the allocation and also described the targets as highly "optimistic" and "unrealistic."

The 12th plan (2012-17) document presents a set of monitorable targets for each sector and allocations to 68 central ministries and departments and the state governments. It is rare that the draft brought before the full Planning Commission is revised as the plan document is finalized in consultation with the ministries concerned.

Although most of these targets such as economic growth target of 8.2% in the 12th plan are aspirational, several ministers felt achieving them will not be easy. "Tax to the gross domestic product (GDP) is highly optimistic," finance minister P Chidambaram said at the meeting. Targets for power generation (88,000 MW), foreign investment (one trillion US dollars) and fiscal consolidation were said to be difficult to achieve.

Chidambaram was also apprehensive about the realisation of gross budgetary support of Rs. 35.68 lakh in the 12th plan saying higher internal and external budgetary resources will be required to meet the shortfall. If the realization is less, it would mean lower allocation for health and education, the two priority areas of the 12th plan.

The allocation on high projects were termed as inadequate by the ministers.

Health minister Gulam Nabi Azad, who is getting the highest 12th plan allocation, described the funding as inadequate and said it would be difficult to achieve the targets listed with it. He also, expressed his displeasure on the plan panel insisting on National Health Mission despite his ministry having reservations over its implementation mode.

Home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde was unhappy with Rs. 52,000 crore provided to his ministry saying modern law and order enforcement mechanism will require much more money.

Others ministries such as road transport, agriculture, information and technology and youth affairs and sports have expressed their displeasure over the 12th plan allocations.

Deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia replied that he had allocated funds as per his kitty. "This is what we have," he said.

The PM reportedly told Ahluwalia to revise the plan document to reflect the concerns raised by the ministers and present the revised version for the Cabinet's approval within a week.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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