NEW DELHI, Jan 2:
Terming as “regressive” the setting up of NITI Aayog to replace the Planning Commission, CPI(M) today said the measure would put states at the mercy of the Centre as it would open “new doors for political bargaining and deal-making”.
CPI too criticised the government’s move, saying it would lead to “confrontation” between the states and the Centre, with “many Chief Ministers” favouring continuation of the Planning Commission to coordinate with the state planning boards.
In a statement, the CPI(M) Politburo said that formation of NITI Aayog is “a regressive step which will further push the country into a market-driven economy and privatisation in all spheres at the expense of diluting even the present inadequate schemes aimed at improving people’s welfare”.
Describing the government’s claim that the new set-up would have the states as stake-holders as “spurious”, it said the National Development Council was being replaced by a Governing Council which is “a powerless body of a think-tank”.
“That think-tank will be under the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister’s Office. This is a centralised unitarian structure.”
Maintaining that allocations to the states would be decided by the Finance Ministry, the party said it would make the states “subject to the political whims” of the Centre.
“By saying ‘one size fits all’ cannot work, what is being done is to put the states at the mercy of the Centre to be dealt with arbitrarily without any common principles and norms. This dangerously opens new doors for political bargaining and deal-making,” the major Left party said.
“Whatever role the Planning Commission had to allocate resources for the public sector and deploying public investment keeping in mind the regional disparities has now ended,” CPI(M) said.
With NITI Ayog, “the role of the State in ensuring the citizens the fundamental rights and fulfilling the Directive Principles of the Constitution regarding education, health, food security and livelihood, is being abandoned,” CPI(M) said.
The abolition of the plan panel concept was the Narendra Modi government’s “ideological conviction that public resources should be put at the disposal of the private sector and the market forces,” it said.
Terming the move as “ill-thought-out”, CPI leader Atul Kumar Anjaan said it would “hamper the organised, well-thought out development of the country and pave the way for confrontation between the states and the central government.”
Observing that “many state Chief Ministers have already expressed their desire to continue with the Planning Commission,” Anjaan said that during the last seven months, due to the absence of the Planning Commission and non-monitoring, development activity had “almost” come to a halted and that another year would pass for the setting up the new structure.
“Earlier, there was a parity between the Planning Commission and state planning commissions. With this idea, there will be a confrontation on the question of federalism,” he said.
“In absence of creating a sufficient structure, what the Prime Minister envisages, another one year will go and that will jeopardize development and the most-marginalised sections will be the victims of this Prime Minister’s ill-thought-out move,” he said.
The CPI leader said his and other Left parties would launch a protest sit-in here before the Budget Session of Parliament in February against the BJP government on various issues, including the reconstitution of the Planning Commission.
“We will also discuss these during our National Executive and National Council meeting from January 15-18 at Nagpur,” he said, adding that communal campaigns like ‘ghar wapsi’, Land Acquisition Ordinance and other issues would also be discussed. (PTI)
Follow our WhatsApp channel