Ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s press conference on May 24 to mark a year of UPA-2 in power, the Planning Commission would brief him about the state of the economy, food security law and infrastructure on Wednesday.
“The Commission’s Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia along with other eight regular members of the panel would meet the Prime Minister at his residence tomorrow,” sources said.
The Commission would appraise the Prime Minister about the economic issues, especially rising inflation and steps being taken to the raise food output.
Mr. Singh will be holding his first structured press conference at home after assuming the charge of Prime Minister for the second time a year ago.
Besides, sources said, Mr. Singh will be briefed about the poverty numbers and implementation of the food security law, which promises cheap food grains to below poverty line (BPL) households.
The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), looking into the food security law, had asked Planning Commission to give firm estimates of poverty numbers.
The Commission has already adopted the Suresh Tendulkar methodology for estimation of poverty, according to which the number of BPL households would be 8.1 crore against the earlier estimate of little over 6 crore.
The Prime Minister will also be briefed about the steps being taken to expedite infrastructure developments in the country, particularly road, rail, ports, power and civil aviation.
