Portal for suggestions on 12th Five Year Plan

"We will launch the portal next week," said the Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Sunday. These suggestions will be included while framing the new five year plan. The Commission will also hire interns to read the suggestions. They will go through the various posts and shortlist the ideas and submit to officials of the commission. 

The website will offer a platform for tech savvy youngsters to air their opinion. "From my experience, I have noted that youngsters can come up with good and innovative ideas," said Ahluwalia.

Delivering a special lecture on "Challenges in the 12th plan" to mark the 83rd birthday of former Union minister M V Rajasekharan he said attaining inclusive growth is one of major challenges in front of the commission.  

"Inclusive growth includes poverty reduction. It is not true that poor are getting poorer and rich are getting richer. Inclusion is a very complex objective," he said. He also said that people make comments on increasing poverty without the support of any statistical data.

Even though the official admitted that there are differences in the performance indices of different states, he noted that statistics suggested that states like Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh popularly known as "Bimaru'" have improved a lot. Ahluwalia said that centre cannot take any action against the states, which do not utilise the funds given to them.

"Some of the schemes can be made performance-based and funds can be released based on the performance. Elected representatives should monitor and review the various government schemes," he said.