Planning Commission suggests new changes to PM

New Delhi, Dec 7: The Planning Commission today suggested to a group chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that its replacement body should be structured to meet the need of changing economic paradigm and comprise sectoral experts and states' representative.

In her presentation before the group comprising Modi and chief ministers, Planning Secretary Sindhushree Khullar said that the new institution may have 8-10 regulars or executive members with half of them representing the states.

She suggested that the remaining members could be sectoral experts -- environmentalists, financial experts, engineers, scientists and eminent scholars from different fields.

The new body may be headed by the Prime Minister as the chairperson position would be ex-officio. The meeting, convened by Modi to deliberate on replacement of the Planning Commission, is being attended by the several Chief Ministers, including Akhilesh Yadav (UP), Manohar Lal Khattar (Haryana), Devendra Fadnavis (Maharashtra) Vasundhara Raje (Rajasthan), Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh), Raman Singh (Chhattisgarh), Harish Rawat (Uttarakhand) and Oomen Chandy (Kerala).

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is skipping the meeting. State Finance Minister Amit Mitra is representing the West Bengal.

Khullar in her presentation suggested that the new institution would have functions including monitoring and evaluation; programme project and scheme evaluation; cross-sectoral and inter-ministerial expertise and appraisal and monitoring of projects.

It is has been suggested that the new body would advise the Prime Minister on matters referred to it. Besides, it should act as think-tank and have network with universities and other institutions.

The new body could provide internal consultancy services to states and the Centre on different matters. It could also be used to design medium and long-term strategy.

PTI