Uttarakhand govt mulls a NITI Aayog at state level

With the NITI Aayog replacing the 65-year-old Planning Commission at the Centre, the Uttarakhand government is also mulling to set up a similar commission at the state level and merge the finance department with the planning department.

For giving broader contours to the new policy, a new planning group - headed by Chief Minister Harish Rawat - has also been set up. The first meeting of the group will be held on January 30, additional chief secretary Rakesh Sharma told Business Standard.

The group members include experts and former state chief secretaries to give new shape to planning in the state and spend the budget accordingly.

Madhukar Gupta, R S Tolia and Indu Pandey are among the former chief secretaries.

"We will discuss all the issues related to the NITI Aayog in the first meeting of the policy planning group on January 30. In this meeting, we can have a fair idea whether we can also have a new NITI Aayog at the state level," Sharma said.

In yet another major policy proposal, the government is also mulling over the idea of merging the finance department with the planning department, to create a department which will take all the decisions regarding the planning and finances together.

Significantly, the move comes after the chief minister, Harish Rawat, recently said he had no choice but to welcome the NITI Aayog.

Earlier, Rawat had bitterly opposed the disbanding of the Planning Commission.

Meanwhile, top government officials said the state government is still awaiting guidelines on the new NITI Aayog. However, they welcomed Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's recent statement that all those central schemes which are not suitable for the hill state will not be imposed in future.

PLANS FOR DEVELOPMENT

• The state is also mulling over an idea to merge the finance department with the state planning department
  

 

A new planning group, headed by Chief Minister Harish Rawat, has also been set up
 

The first meeting of the group will be held on January 30
 

Madhukar Gupta, R S Tolia and Indu Pandey are among the former chief secretaries, who will be part of the group
 

The state government is still awaiting guidelines on the new NITI Aayog, officials said