Govt may unveil new planning body before winter session

Government is likely to unveil the structure of the new official think tank that would replace the Planning Commission before the forthcoming winter session of Parliament in November.

"The government may form the new body to replace Planning Commission before the Winter Session," a source said.

The Members of Parliament, he said, would obviously enquire about the status of the replacement of Commission which was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech from the ramparts of Red Fort.

The issue of new body was discussed at meetings of experts in the Planning Commission and several suggestions were made to the government.

Suggestions for the structure of a new body were also made by other individuals but Modi has yet to take a final view on it.

In order to maintain continuity in this regard, the government has shifted the responsibility of determining the annual plan spending from the Commission to finance ministry.

Recently, the Finance Ministry had asked all ministries and departments to submit their Plan spending estimate for 2015-16 directly to it.

As per the earlier practice, the central ministries as well as states used to send their annual Plan outlay proposals to the Commission for vetting.

After evaluating the budget proposals of the ministries and states, the quantum of Plan outlay was jointly finalised by the Commission and finance ministry.

Besides negotiating the play outlay of central ministries and states with finance ministry, the Commission has been evaluating various cabinet proposals of different ministries, including big infrastructure projects.

The Commission also has the responsibility to draft five year plans which are approved by the country's apex decision making body the National Development Council headed by the Prime Minister with cabinet ministers and chief ministers on its board.

Meanwhile, according to information available, the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh would meet on Monday to decide on the schedule of winter session.

However the source said that the session is expected to begin from November 24.