Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement to recast a new planning body after disbanding the Planning Commission is an idea whose time has come. The Commission set up under the control and command economy has outlived its utility. This has been pointed out by several economic experts who believe that the Planning Commission exercises unconstitutional powers and is also not held accountable by Parliament. That elected chief ministers of states should pay their annual obeisance to members of the Planning Commission whose practice over the years has been an unrealistic hike of ten per cent from the previous year’s budget and their inability to effectively monitor projects that they have articulated and financed to the state governments has been a major problem area.
The Planning Commission has come up with several schemes not necessarily after assessing the needs of the respective states but on the basis of what they have assessed to be the needs of some of the larger states. Hence, over the decades the Planning Commission has been responsible for coming up with what is commonly called a “one shoe fits all” model. That this model has bombed in many of the smaller states goes without saying. The states have implemented these central schemes vide the top-down mode and with the sole idea of meeting targets. Social mobilisation and strategic communication which are central to the success of any scheme have been given short shrift. Unless the people who are actual stakeholders of every scheme participate in its implementation as equal partners nothing will work. This has been demonstrated time and again by the failure of several schemes dumped on states down the decades. This defies the very idea of governance which implies participation of stake-holders right from the conception of the plans.
Modi has suggested another body called the National Development and Reforms Commission would be put in place and has sought the views of the public about the architecture of this body. This will provide citizens the opportunity to be involved in a process they think would meet the needs of the country in the era of a more globalised economy.
