Doing away with Planning Commission unwise, says professor

Mysuru: Kuvempu University professor T R Manjunath has said that the creation of Niti Aayog, by doing away with the Planning Commission, has serious implications on fiscal federalism.
Delivering the keynote address at a national seminar on 'From Planning Commission to Niti Aayog - A paradigm change in India's development polity regime' organized by University of Mysore on Friday, Manjunath said that one of the functions of Aayog has been to usher in an era of co-operative and competitive federalism."State governments and Union territories are well represented in Aayog Governing Council. The Planning Commission used to oversee the use of resources channelled through the finance commission and resources of states. It was a sort of irritant between the states and the Centre," he said, adding: "When Planning Commission was in place, the Centre used to transfer resources to states through the finance commission and the central ministries. Over the years, Planning Commission began taking over jobs meant to be carried out by other bodies like finance commission and central ministries. Thus it stretched its powers beyond boundaries."
"The growing number of centrally-sponsored schemes (CSS) has been a major source of irritant in the Indian federal structure. The commission had been accused of imposing uniform norms and guidelines through CSS. The one-size-fits-all approach by the commission is resented by many state governments. The CSS system suffered due to lack of flexibility, which affected fiscal space too," he added.
Manjunath said that there are people who have critized the functioning of the erstwhile Planning Commission, and there are people who have expressed doubts about the efficiency of Niti Aayog.
Karnataka State Planning Board member Rekha Jagannath, UoM VC K S Rangappa and others were present.