First time, PM calls all CMs for meeting

“After his return from the G20 Leaders’ Summit and bilateral meetings in Australia, the Prime Minister met senior Cabinet ministers and secretary-level officers to take stock of the action taken by their respective departments over announcements made by the government and by him.
Several were pulled up for poor follow up,” another official said.
Officials said the Planning Commission was set up following a March 15, 1950 Cabinet resolution. Any proposal to replace the Planning Commission with a new institution has to be therefore placed before and approved by the Cabinet.

In fact, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, had in mid-2010 said the Commission must be an “essay in persuasion” and transform itself into a Systems Reforms Commission. The Plan panel then had envisaged that the Commission would restructure itself to build a larger network with opinion makers, produce thought papers and communicate more lucidly.

According to government officials, the PMO is keen that the new institution work closely with states, rather co-opt states, to take the country to the next level of development and reforms. The new institution, one official said, may be christened as the National Development Reforms Commission.

In his Independence Day address, Modi had said the Planning Commission was a very old system and will have to be changed a lot to meet the needs of changing times. “Sometimes it costs more to repair the old house, but, it gives us no satisfaction. Thereafter, we have a feeling that it would be better to construct a new house altogether and therefore within a short period, we will replace the Planning Commission.”

He envisaged the institution as a new body, a new soul with new thinking and direction. “…(It will work) to promote the aspirations of state governments seeking development, to empower the state governments and to empower the federal structure,” he had said.