Notwithstanding the Planning Commission has appointed more than 150 working groups and steering committees, which are mostly headed by its members, to work on the 12th Plan (2012-17) document, the commission has astonished almost all by declaring that the “views expressed in their respective reports are not that of the panel.”
In an apparent bid to avoid any controversy, as it had happened in the case of determining the Below Poverty Line (BPL) cut off figure, which even divided the panel vertically, the plan panel on its official website has of late declared: “Views expressed in the working groups and steering committees are not that of the Planning Commission”. Incidentally, the views expressed in the meeting of such groups and committees become part of the report. In the run-up to the finalisation of the 12th Plan document, which has already been delayed by more than six month, as the current financial year (2012-13) is the first year of the plan, the government had appointed 136 working groups, headed by sector experts and 29 steering committees, headed by either minister of state for planning Aswini Kumar or the members of the panel.
As the plan panel has divided the final document into 26 chapters covering almost all the sectors of country’s economy from agriculture to infrastructure to rural development to information technology (IT), it constituted the steering committees and working groups for better coordination. Already, 111 of the 136 working groups and nine of the 29 steering committees have submitted their reports, claimed the plan panel’s website.
Now with the new declaration of “disowning the views” is being posted on the official website, questions are being asked in the Yojana Bhawan as to how the Planning Commission can disassociate itself from the reports of the steering committees, which are headed by Dr Kumar and other members of the panel, including Abhijit Sen, Saumitra Chaudhuri, Narendra Jadhav, Syeda Hameed and Mihir Shah.
Incidentally, the steering committee on “agriculture and allied sectors” is headed by Dr Sen and among the participants are two members of the panel — Dr K. Kasturirangan and Dr Shah.