Legal backing for new plan body?

The proposed body to replace the Planning Commission can have Constitutional backing as the government is looking at a structure to help foster better Centre-state relations and build “Team India”.

Updated on: Dec 8, 2014, 01:07:26 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The proposed body to replace the Planning Commission can have Constitutional backing as the government is looking at a structure to help foster better Centre-state relations and build “Team India”.

Prime-Minister-Narendra-Modi-on-his-arrival-at-Tribhuvan-International-Airport-in-Kathmandu-PTI-photo

The new body, primarily aimed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “cooperative federalism” concept, would have the key function of resolving inter-state disputes, which is covered under Article 263 of the Constitution.

An inter-state council headed by the Prime Minister with all the chief ministers as members was set up under this article in 1980. Now, the government proposes to make the council — under the administrative control of the home ministry — as part of the new commission. The Centre is considering providing Constitutional backing to this body, as finance minister Arun Jaitely said the “alternate body” could be a “constitutional” body.

However, the National Development Council — another body of the PM and chief ministers — did not have Constitutional backing as it was set up by executive order of the Planning Commission, a creation of a Cabinet resolution not having legal backing.

The government also wants the new body to be accountable to Parliament.

A senior government functionary explained that providing Constitutional backing would provide “stability” and “seriousness” to the new body and will also check future governments from tampering with it. He added the move would also bring clarity in the functions of the proposed body, likely to be called Niti Commission.

Refusing to give a timeframe within which the new body will be set up, Jaitely said the government will take a final view at an appropriate time on all the issues, including whether the present concept of annual and five year plans should continue or not.

Jaitley also said the CMs wanted the body to enable the exchange of views with the Centre and to be a “knowledge hub” for India.

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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