Congress chief ministers are likely to oppose the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government’s plans to set up a new body to replace the Planning Commission in a meeting convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 7 to discuss the issue.
The party top brass is learnt to have instructed chief ministers of Congress-ruled states to contest the proposal by saying that the Centre's intention was not in the spirit of good governance.
“We are not against restructuring any organisation in the interest of better coordination or governance. However the very agenda of the government seems to be to kill the Planning Commission,” said senior Congress leader Anand Sharma here.
The Planning Commission was set up to bring better synergy among various ministries in policy-making and allocation of funds to states for execution of welfare programmes. However, the NDA government wants to demolish the organisation by giving more power to the Finance Ministry, said Sharma.
The Congress rules nine states, including Karnataka, Kerala, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Arunchal Pradesh.
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