Natabar Khuntia
On March 15, 1950, former Prime Minister Jwaharlal Nehru set up the Planning Commission not as a constitutional body but as an arm of the government under his chairmanship. Planning Commission was responsible for formulating Five-Year Plans of India for social and economic development. It consulted Central ministries and state governments while formulating plans, and oversaw their implementation. It was also the apex advisory body.
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It was abolished by the Narendra Modi-led BJP government in August 2014. It was felt the economic development process of the country was not working in the right direction under the Planning Commission, since plans were thrust upon the grassroots without taking field-level needs into consideration. In its place, National Institute for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog was set up with the Prime Minister as its chairperson. The chief executive of the Aayog is the deputy chairperson and experts from different sectors are members of the body.
Some states have state planning boards, established on the lines of the Planning Commission, to prepare economic development plans taking into account their resources and manpower for integrated development and to reduce poverty and unemployment. They were to collaborate and consult with the Planning Commission. Odisha, too, had set up a planning board. In the past, people like Biju Patnaik, Surendranath Dwivedy, B Sivaraman and Dr Baidyanath Mishra were in the Planning Board either as chairpersons or deputy chairpersons.
Although the Planning Commission has been abolished at the Centre, the state planning board continues to function. At present, the Chief Minister is chairperson of the board and MLA Bishnu Charan Das is the deputy chairperson. Besides, there are a number of members, mostly political leaders. A retired IAS officer of Gujarat cadre RN Das has been appointed as advisor to the planning board since October 2014. He has been given the status of minister of state.
In addition, a member namely Ramachandra Panda, who was the Deputy Speaker, has also been given the status of a minister of state One will be surprised to know that since last 12 years no meeting of the Planning Board has been held though the Chief Minister is its chairperson.
During the last 19 years only three meetings were held – the first and second meetings were held May 9 and August 9, 2003, while the last one was held October 25, 2007.
In the meantime, district planning committees (DPCs) were formed during 2008-09. Earlier, ministers were appointed as the chairpersons of the DPCs but now political leaders are being appointed to the post. These chairpersons are given the status of minister of state.
Under the instruction of NITI Aayog, plans are being prepared from grassroots level and funds from the Centre are directly reaching the blocks and panchayats.
It has been seen that DPCs play very little role in preparing district-level plans. The officials prepare plans and DPCs, in a routine manner, approve the plans in their annual meetings.
Hardly any member of the Planning Board or deputy chairperson or advisor visits the districts to advise the DPCs on how to prepare district plans.
It appears that the state Planning Board is a white elephant which consumes crores of rupees from the exchequer without any contribution. The board has become the asylum for rehabilitating disgruntled and unsuccessful politicians at the cost of taxpayers’ money. If the board wants to successfully play its role for planned development of the state then its team should visit Kerala to ascertain how the board there is functioning successfully and playing a vital role in the development of the state. In addition, the Odisha Planning Board should be reformed and reconstituted and the deputy chairperson should regularly play his/her role in planned development of the state. The chief executive or the deputy chairperson should be an experienced and eminent economist and members should be experts from agriculture, industry health, engineering, education and social sectors.
It is learnt instead of taking the advice of the Planning Board, the state government departments are appointing consultants from outside for different projects. Will the consultants be accountable for the failure of these projects? It is also learnt that the government is preparing a vision document for 2036 on the occasion of the centenary year of Odisha’s formation. Is the Planning Board involved in preparing the document?
Since its inception in 2000, the Naveen Patnaik government has been promising that it will convert the state into one of the economically leading states of the country. But even after 19 years of his continuous rule, Odisha continues to be the poorest state of the country, as per the Raghuram Rajan Committee report. None in his/her remote dreams would think that Odisha would come out of the clutches of poverty in near future seeing the functioning of state Planning Board.
It is a wonder that the intellectuals, opposition parties, civil societies and even the media are not reacting how they ought. It is high time that the state Planning Board should be revamped and made to function properly or be abolished.
The writer is an agro-banker. e-Mail: natabarkhuntia1@gmail.com
