Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu favoured scrapping of the Planning Commission and replacing it with a Council comprising Chief Ministers of all States
Talking to reporters in New Delhi after attending Chief Ministers’meeting convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi , he also suggested changes in the allocation of funds of Centrally-sponsored schemes to the States as the existing system was not beneficial to some States. He said that in the past, the Planning Commission used to conduct meetings as a mere formality before or after the budget preparation and as a result the States could not formulate plans in the manner they wanted.
Though he had attended Planning Commission meetings on nine occasions during his tenure as Chief Minister earlier, it was not that much useful. He had suggested at Sunday’s meeting that a committee of all CMs headed by the Prime Minister should be formed in place of Planning Commission. It could meet to discuss important issues whenever needed. A separate secretariat for the committee should be established.
Referring to his recent visits to Singapore and Japan, Mr.Naidu said the world was evincing interest in India.
He called for preparing a vision document for 2050 by when India would become one of the two top countries. Stressing the need to prepare plans every five years, he said best practices need to be adopted to remove poverty and eliminate economic imbalances. He also wanted elections to Lok Sabha and Assembly to be held simultaneously to save time.
Replying to a question, the Chief Minister said that he had discussed separately the issue of State’s capital with Mr. Modi. Mr. Naidu reportedly observed that the country was not making progress due to outdated systems and lengthy procedures.
