Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will chair the full-fledged meeting of the Planning Commission next month to approve the ‘Approach Paper' to the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) that is likely to focus on raising economic growth to 9-9.5 per cent.
Officials in the Finance Ministry said the approach paper would provide the broad framework of the government policy to be pursued in the five-year period to achieve the desired growth rate. Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia had already indicated that the Approach to the 12th Plan would be ready by the middle of next month. “Internally, we have scheduled that the approach document should be ready sometime in the middle of July,” Dr. Ahluwalia had stated.
After approval by the full Plan panel, the document will be sent for the consideration of the Union Cabinet. Since Parliament's monsoon session is scheduled from August 1 to September 8, it will be placed before the country's highest policy making body, the National Development Council (NDC), after the conclusion of the session.
The Plan panel is expecting to complete consultation with States for finalising the document by the first week of July. The last such consultation will be held in the first week of July with the North-Eastern States including Assam, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur.
The Commission had already completed discussion on the document with 11 Chief Ministers.
During the full-fledged meeting of the Plan panel on April 21, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said: “The 12th Plan objective must be faster, more inclusive, and also sustainable growth.”
