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Manik Sarkar hits Modi Govt for removing Jawaharlal Nehru Govt led introduced Five-Years ‘Planning Commission’, slams ‘Slowdown’ under NITI-Aayog
TIWN Oct 23, 2019
Manik Sarkar hits Modi Govt for removing Jawaharlal Nehru Govt led introduced Five-Years ‘Planning Commission’, slams ‘Slowdown’ under NITI-Aayog
PHOTO : Manik Sarkar addressing at Agartala Town Hall. TIWN Pic Oct 23, 2019

AGARTALA, Oct 23 (TIWN): Hitting the Modi Govt for removing Planning Commission which was constituted by India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Tripura’s former Chief Minister Manik Sarkar today reminded how under NITI Aayog Indian economy was destroyed since 2014. Addressing in a Party programme at Agartala Town Hall, Manik Sarkar said, “Removing Planning Commission which was constituted by India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on the basis of previous years experiences and holding meeting with experts, the Modi Govt had totally removed that Planning Commission and introduced NITI Aayog with few persons who stand & sit by Govt’s orders. Now NITI Aayog’s members themselves are alleging about the economic crisis of the country. Right now our country’s economic condition reels under unemployment, job terminations, loss in business, pause in manufacturing”.“However, the BJP Govt has placed an imaginary picture about India before the world saying India is developing, but now the realities are coming out. Now, also the Govt is trying to suppress the economic status related data but in the international surveys also the actual data has come out and economic slowdown is evident”, Sarkar said.

“The main cause of this slowdown is related to farmers’ distress. 70% people are involved in agriculture for livelihood in India but maximum of those farmers don’t have own lands. Govt’s work is to help the farmers with various subsidies. Such policies are also followed by various developed countries but our country’s Govt is walking in the opposite direction”, said Sarkar.

https://youtu.be/eBVPBwADNMU  Click TIWN YouTube Link to see Manik Sarkar's speech 

He also took a dig at his state’s media for suppressing economic data related news items.

“Thus, the basic reason of economic slowdown is farmers’ distress. Govt has to fund them and help them so that they can get the minimum profit while selling. But as the Govt is not doing so, as a result agriculture, cultivations are downing day by day, directly linking the markets with slowdown”, said Sarkar.

History of Planning Commission constitution : Rudimentary economic planning, deriving from the sovereign authority of the state, was first initiated in India in 1938 by Congress President and Indian National Army supreme leader Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, who had been persuaded by Meghnad Saha to set up a National Planning Committee.[2] M. Visvesvaraya had been elected head of the Planning Committee. Meghnad Saha approached him and requested that he step down, putting forward the argument that planning needed a reciprocity between science and politics. M. Visvesvaraya generously agreed and Jawaharlal Nehru was made head of the National Planning Committee.The so-called "British Raj" also formally established the Advisory Planning Board under K. C. Neogy that functioned from 1944 to 1946.

Industrialists and economists independently formulated at least three development plans. Some scholars have argued that the introduction of planning as an instrument was intended to transcend the ideological divisions between Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru.[3] Other scholars have argued that the Planning Commission, as a central agency in the context of plural democracy in India, needs to carry out more functions than rudimentary economic planning.

After India achieved independence, a formal model of planning was adopted, and accordingly the Planning Commission, reporting directly to the Prime Minister of India, was established on 15 March 1950, with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru as the Chairman. Authority for creation of the Planning Commission was not derived from the Constitution of India or statute; it is an arm of the Central Government of India.

The first Five-Year Plan was launched in 1951, focusing mainly on development of the agricultural sector. Two subsequent Five-Year Plans were formulated before 1965, when there was a break because of the Indo-Pakistan conflict. Two successive years of drought, devaluation of the currency, a general rise in prices and erosion of resources disrupted the planning process and after three Annual Plans between 1966 and 1969, the fourth Five-Year Plan was started in 1969.

In 2014, Narendra Modi government decided to wind down the Planning Commission. It was replaced by the newly formed NITI Aayog.

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