New Delhi: Almost a decade after the dissolution of the Planning Commission, a communication by the Lok Sabha Secretariat has brought the institution back into discourse.
Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh shared a notification issued by the secretariat that mentions the Planning Commission on social media microblogging site X (formerly twitter).
According to a letter dated 12 June 2024 and signed in the name of President Droupadi Murmu, the newly-elected 18th Lok Sabha has been summoned to meet for its first session on 24 June. Planning Commission is mentioned in the letter as one of the institutions that the copy of the notification has been forwarded to.
In the post, Ramesh wrote that the prime minister seemed to have “realised his folly in abolishing it (Planning Commission)”.
The Lok Sabha Secretariat has just issued a Notification in the name of the President of India, summoning the Lok Sabha on June 24th.
A copy of the Notification has been forwarded to the Planning Commission. Finally the एक तिहाई Pradhan Mantri seems to have realised his folly in… pic.twitter.com/kgL82u3Thf
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) June 13, 2024
According to sources in the Lok Sabha Secretariat, the notification shared online by the Congress leader “must have reached the concerned department and they might issue a revision”.
The Planning Commission, which used to act as an advisor to the government for policy formation, was replaced in 2015 by NITI Aayog — National Institution for Transforming India, a public policy think-tank with the prime minister as an ex-officio chairperson.
“The centre-to-state one-way flow of policy, that was the hallmark of the Planning Commission era, is now sought to be replaced by a genuine and continuing partnership of states,” a release from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in 2015 read.
The Planning Commission, set up by India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru, was in charge of formulating five year plans — a model of planning adopted by the Indian government after independence. The NITI Aayog, which replaced the institution, was set up to provide the Centre and state governments with “relevant strategic and technical advice across the spectrum of key elements of policy”.
This change was slammed by various members of the Opposition, including the Congress, which called the establishment of NITI Aayog “an expansion of the PMO” and “end of federalism”.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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