Planning Commission to launch website, welcomes suggestions
|
COMMENTS 
There’s good news for citizens: they will get to voice their opinions and ideas before the Planning Commission. The Plan panel is to introduce a process that will help people participate in the Twelfth Five-Year Plan
The Union Planning Commission proposes to launch a website soon, inviting suggestions from individuals, civil society organisations and other groups on its approach to the Twelfth Five-Year Plan, deputy chairman of the Plan panel Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia said recently in Bangalore.
“We will be launching it shortly, probably next week,” Ahluwalia said, adding that the Commission also plans to get in a group of interns to go through the suggestions, finalise them, and feed them to the Commission. “We have just begun thinking about the Twelfth Plan. We have just begun the process of identifying the challenges,” he said.
The mantra for the Eleventh Five-Year Plan -- inclusive growth -- would continue, Ahluwalia said, as this could not be achieved in a single Plan. “When one dimension is addressed, another surfaces,” he said.
Accountability will be a crucial issue in the face of allegations that some of the resources channelled through the Centre were being misused by states or remained unutilised. Currently, the Centre can resort to very little punitive action if the money is not spent.
The centrally-sponsored schemes through which resources are channelised aim at providing broad guidelines for the states to follow, to ensure some control. “The challenge in the Twelfth Plan will be to ensure implementation of these schemes on the ground,” Ahluwalia stressed.
The challenge also lay in how to ensure that people participated, and that local bodies delivered. Raising the current level of agricultural growth to at least 4% was another major issue.
Then there is the challenge of increasing urbanisation. By 2040, the country’s urban population is slated to increase from 28% to 40%. “Our urban governance is still in the form of a colonial structure, but we have to make efforts to address the issue of local governance as well,” Ahluwalia said.
Most state governments are not ready to face the issue of increased urbanisation. Ensuring energy and water efficiency are important. With the private sector largely driving the economy, lack of transparency has become the major issue in a few sectors like mining and land acquisition. These issues will be addressed in the Plan, he said.
Source: The Economic Times, September 20, 2010
Press Trust of India, September 20, 2010
DNA, September 20, 2010