A parliamentary committee has rapped the Planning Commission for the delay in putting in place the final document of the 12th five-year plan, which was due to be implemented from April 1 this year.
It also asked the plan panel to finalise the 12th plan at the earliest so that it could be synchronised with the budget year 2012-13. The plan is yet to get the National Development Council’s nod and a final shape of the same could be delayed even beyond June this year, according to the latest report of the standing committee on finance presented to Parliament this month.
“The committee cannot but deprecate the lackadaisical manner of functioning of the planning commission in completing the procedural formalities of approval of the 12th five year plan timely,” the report said. The 12th plan, which addresses five critical issues to put the economy back on a high growth trajectory of 9 per cent, has been behind the schedule for its implementation mainly because the process of receiving reports from the working groups and steering committees is not complete. The planning commission had set up 138 working groups and 29 steering committees to look into sectoral constraints and suggest measures that could be taken to achieve the targeted growth during the plan. The steering committees, except a few, are yet to submit their reports to the planning commission, the parliamentary committee quoted a member secretary of planning commission as saying during the course of oral evidence before it.
The member secretary also admitted before the committee that after the approval of the NDC by June or July this year, the shape of the 12th plan will be visible, the parliamentary panel said. The officials in planning commission, however, maintained that delay in formulation of five-year plans is normal. The documents for the 10th and 11th Plans were also finalised much after the formal beginning.
“This time, too, there is a delay, but that does not mean any delay in the formal beginning of the plan,” an official said.
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