A day after Chief Minister Mayawati issued instructions for observing austerity in her government,a jumbo team of over 150 officials left for Delhi in connection with a meeting of the Planning Commission for the approval of the states annual plan for the current year on Thursday. Headed by Chief Secretary Atul Gupta,the team includes over three dozen secretaries,principal secretaries,special secretaries and head of departments,besides officials of several departments. The secretaries,principal secretaries and HODs went by air,while the lesser mortals are travelling by train. The meeting on October 15 will be the second; the earlier meeting was held on August 18. Another meeting was scheduled for September 8,but was cancelled by the Planning Commission at the eleventh hour for lack of preparation by the state government team. This is the first time such a huge team of state officials is going for the discussion on the state plan. An official of the states Planning Department said that usually,the chief minister,accompanied by six or seven key officers,attend the meeting with the Planning Commissions Deputy Chairman to discuss the size and details of the annual plan. This meeting is usually followed by a meeting of the working groups of the state,representing various sectors of the economy and departments,with the Commission for giving final touches to the plan. However,Chief Minister Mayawati discontinued the practice of personally attending the meeting. Following this,the Planning Commission also scaled down the protocol. Now,UP officials hold the discussion with the B K Chaturvedi,one of the members of Planning Commission. The official said now entire exercise has to be completed in a day. The meeting of the working groups with Planning Commission officials will begin at 10.30 am,to be followed by a meeting of the top officials of the state with the secretary to the Planning Commission and finally the wrap-up meeting with Chaturvedi. The official said there is nothing new in working groups visiting the Planning Commission. What is new this time is that so many top officers are going to attend the meeting. Most of them had not gone to Delhi either on August 18 or September 8,he added. After two failed meetings with the Planning Commission,we cannot take any chances. So senior officers of all departments have been asked to be well prepared and be present in Delhi, said the official. This time,we are fully prepared and confident that the Planning Commission will approve the annual plan size of Rs 39,000 crore, said J N Chamber,Principal Secretary of Planning. Even if the Planning Commission ignores our demand for a hike in additional central assistance,we hope to get an outlay of at least Rs 37,500 crore,which will be Rs 1,500 crore higher then the outlay of 2008-09, he added. As many as 16 working groups have been constituted for the discussion with the Planning Commission for various sectors and departments.
