NEW DELHI: After the Planning Commission, yet another Nehruvian legacy is going to be a thing of the past — the five year plan. The Niti Aayog has decided to replace this relic from the good old socialist days of Indo-soviet friendship with a more “growth-driven” modern planning process.
The new venture that will replace the ‘five year plans’ will come into action once the current plan period gets over in 2017, said sources within the Niti Aayog.
“We have to update our planning process in tune with the changing times. We are not nullifying the contributions of five year plans. But its relevance is over,’’ a source with the Niti Aayog told Express.
According to him, the country needs plans with a longer vision and insisted that the five year plan series focused on short-term goals.
The thrust of the new planning process, according to sources, would be ‘growth’. Infrastructure development and social sector spending would also be given top priority.
“The world economy has changed drastically ever since the five year plans were mooted. We also need to change,’’ said the official explaining the rationale for the change.
When asked how different the new planning process would be in comparison with the existing five year plans, the official said it would connect panchayats to the global economy. Economic growth rate and social sector development will not remain two separate entities. It will be mutually connected, he said.
According to him, the new planning process will stress on accountability and monitoring. “We will set fixed targets and specific milestones. And there will be monitoring and reviews in a rigorous manner,’’ he said ambitiously.
He also said that the results of the new planning process would be more ‘palpable’ while the five year plans were more symbolic.
“Any institution to remain relevant has to reinvent itself. We are doing exactly that,’’ said the Niti Aayog official.
When asked about the criticism of Niti Aayog failing to make any impact so far, the official said that the work had just started.
“We had to clean up decades of mess. We have just started our serious work and now the country will start seeing its impacts,’’ he said.