PM asks Plan panel to monitor economy of states

Chairing a meeting of the full-time members of the Planning Commission, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today asked the commission’s members and officials to keep track of state-level development.

The prime minister urged the Plan panel to tour states, review implementation of centrally-funded programmes and generate reports on state-level economic performance.

He also instructed the commission to revive the practice of producing annual plan reports and regularly brief the Union Cabinet on economic policy issues.

The meeting was held to take stock of the state of economy ahead of the Union Budget for 2010-11, which is expected to be presented in the last week of February.

The prime minister directed the commission to complete the mid-term appraisal (MTA) of the Eleventh Plan (2007-12) by March 2010.

According to Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen, who was present in the meeting, Singh suggested that performances of the current financial year should be incorporated into the MTA.

The issue of rising prices of food articles was also discussed at length in the meeting. Food inflation touched an 11-year high of 19.95 per cent for the week ended December 5.

The meeting, however, did not deal with specific issues related to the upcoming budget, said another member who was present in the meeting. The meeting was attended by Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, all the eight members of the commission and secretary Sudha Pillai.

The commission, as a regular practice, reviews the performance of the Five-Year Plan after three years and suggests corrective measures for achieving its objectives. The MTA document is also used as input for the next Plan. The document has already been delayed.

Although the Planning Commission had set an ambitious growth target of 9 per cent for the Eleventh Plan, the projections were derailed following the global financial crisis. The GDP growth rate slipped to 6.7 per cent in 2008-09, after posting 9 per cent growth during the previous three years.