Planning, statistical depts to be separated

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda recently held a meeting in this regard and after hearing the discussion, he agreed in principle to strengthen the State Planning Board by separation of planning wing from the economic and statistical organisation. In the coming months, the government will take necessary steps in this regard, say sources.

A senior government official said that for long it had been felt that there was a need to separate the economic and statistical organisation from that of planning for effective working of both the departments.

Most of the other states in the country have already segregated the two departments keeping in view the vision document of the Planning Commission. At the Centre, too, the Ministry of Statistics and the Planning

Commission have been working independently.

The official said the State Planning Board must function as a counterpart of the Planning Commission of the Central government and must have advisers/experts in various fields on its panel similar to that of the Planning Commission with the support of the Planning Department.

The Planning Commission is reportedly in the process of formulating a new scheme for strengthening of Planning Process in the state/districts under which funds will be provided to the states by the Central government for strengthening its planning machinery.

In view of this, the planning and the statistics departments need to be segregated to be able to take full advantage of the Central government8217;s initiative.

The District Planning Unit functioning in each district will work under the Department of Planning.

It was also decided that the modalities for strengthening of Department of Planning in support of State Planning Board, including requirement of additional manpower at each level along with additional financial liabilities, will be worked out and put up at the earliest to the government for approval.

According to the vision document of the Planning Commission, the formulation of the Annual/Five Year Plans should start at the village level, block level,and then gradually to the district level and not vice-versa. It, therefore, requires strengthening of infrastructure at the district-level planning.

Also, monitoring and evaluation of any development scheme/project is as important as the project itself.

Separate monitoring cells need to be created at the district level.

The proposed change will benefit the public as the government would be able to chalk out planning for the people at the grassroots level, according to sources. This way the government would be able to incorporate the views and demands of the people in a better way.