Set up reform commission instead of plan panel: IEO
The Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) has asked the Prime Minister’s Office to abolish the Planning Commission and instead set up Reform and Solution Commission as a government think tank through an Act of Parliament.
The Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) has asked the Prime Minister’s Office to abolish the Planning Commission and instead set up Reform and Solution Commission as a government think tank through an Act of Parliament.
HT Image
{{^htLoading}} {{/htLoading}}
In a note sent to the PMO, the office set up by the UPA government under the aegis of the plan panel, has suggested that the powers of disbursing funds to the state governments should be given to the finance ministry, which is accountable to Parliament unlike the plan panel.
“The function of allocating plan expenses which the Planning Commission currently discharges without any constitutional or legislative mandate should be performed by an expert body… such a body already exists in the form of Finance Commission which has this authority bestowed upon it by the Constitution,” says the 11-page note submitted by IEO director general Ajay Chhibber.
It also suggested that the Finance Commission should be a permanent body responsible for the allocation of centrally-collected revenues to the states working with the help of a panel of advisors with domain-level expertise. And finance ministry should disburse funds on its recommendations.
{{^htLoading}} {{/htLoading}}
{{^usCountry}}
Presenting a critique on how the panel has turned into a “control” commission, the note said the members of the panel were “susceptible” to pressures from the PMO and it can lead to partial treatment in allocation of resources amongst the states.
{{/usCountry}}
{{#usCountry}}
Presenting a critique on how the panel has turned into a “control” commission, the note said the members of the panel were “susceptible” to pressures from the PMO and it can lead to partial treatment in allocation of resources amongst the states.
{{/usCountry}}
The note was also critical of the panel being turned into a “parking lot” for IAS officers having no domain knowledge. With IAS officers reporting to the secretary, the note said the panel was no different than central ministries in way of its administration.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has publically sought dismantling of the commission saying it has outlived its utility in the modern economic era.
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.
