The Hindu Business Line : White elephant

THE brouhaha over the induction of foreign consultants into the committees of the Planning Commission has deflected attention away from the fundamental question about the continued usefulness of the Commission itself. It was the brainchild of India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who was sold on the Soviet economic model, with the State holding the levers of the economy in what Rajaji so aptly described as the permit-licence-quota raj. The Plans, so much a prominent part of Soviet economic landscape, became the means in India also for prescribing the nature, quantum and direction of all economic decision-making, including mobilisation of resources, investment, allocation of funds and choice of schemes and projects.

The Planning Commission, which was set up in 1950, was an all-powerful body till the era of liberalisation, by virtue of its comprehensive charter incorporating functions that gave it an overlordship of the Central and State Governments. It had the final say in the apportionment of the material, capital and human resources of the country, including technical personnel, in accordance with the phases and priorities it laid down in its plans.

Things went to such absurd lengths that government departments as well as private and public sector enterprises were totally under the dictates of the Commission for all decisions regarding factors of production, location or shifting of projects, increase or decrease of capacities, market borrowing and even the use of their own internally generated resources. The procession of Cabinet Ministers, Chief Ministers, business tycoons and chiefs of government undertakings pitifully knocking at the doors of the Commission for permissions and sanctions of various kinds became a familiar sight.

The launch of economic liberalisation has luckily changed all that. The Commission stands robbed of its justification. The only possible role it now has is of a think-tank for which there are a number of much better alternatives. Winding it up would make the space of sprawling Yojana Bhavan available for a more purposeful use, and save the several crores of rupees now being spent on the Commission's underworked staff and establishment.

It is well worth getting rid of this white elephant, brushing aside the resistance that is bound to be put up by vested interests advancing spurious arguments.

More Stories on : Politics | Economy | Offhand

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
The regulatory static

A rude encounter with crude

Press Note 18: A way out of imbroglio

White elephant

Transforming lives of rural women

Iraq Survey Group's chance discovery — Oil as weapon of mass corruption

Fiscal deficit

Cabinet approval