UP Niti Aayog to mark shift in focus from planning to policies
The 48-year-long journey of the state plan panel will come to an end
LUCKNOW: The Yogi government’s move to set up the State Niti Aayog after scrapping the Uttar Pradesh State Planning Commission will shift the focus from planning to formulation, evaluation and monitoring of policies. The step will also bring to an end the 48-year-long journey of the state plan panel.
“UP State Niti Aayog is being set up with the objective of formulation and evaluation of policies and also to carry out studies in a systematic manner and monitor the impact. A need has been felt to evaluate and ascertain whether the stated objectives of government policies/ schemes are being achieved. There is also a need to carry out the scientific study of impact of policies/schemes on the people. The State Niti Aayog is being set up to assume this role,” a senior officer said.
Finance minister Suresh Khanna made the announcement about the move to set up the
State Niti Aayog while presenting the state government’s annual budget for 2020-2021 in the state assembly on Tuesday.
The Uttar Pradesh State Planning Commission was set up under the chairmanship of the chief minister in 1972 to assess the state’s physical, financial and manpower resources, draft annual plans and five-year plans and ensure conformity of the state plans with the national plans. The state planning commission, however, lost its relevance after the Narendra Modi government on January 1, 2015 decided to do away with the Planning Commission of India and set up the National Institution for Transforming India as a policy think tank, also called the NITI Aayog.
Although there was a question mark over the fate of the state planning commission after 2015, the panel continued to play the important role of being the guiding apex body for the District Planning Committees set up in every district under provisions of Article 243 ZD of the Constitution
of India to work out district plans for development.
The Samajwadi Party government led by Akhilesh Yadav decided to make no changes and continued to use the state plan panel as an important support mechanism for the purpose of coordination with and providing necessary inputs to the NITI Aayog.
After being installed in 2017, the Yogi Adityanath government began the process to restructure and reassign the role of the state plan panel.
A move to merge the planning department with the programme implementation department was also initiated as part of a recent exercise aimed at pruning the number of departments. No final decision was, however, taken on the issue.
A proposal to restructure the organisation and set up the State Niti Aayog in place of the UP State Planning Commission was discussed at the state cabinet’s meeting a few months ago though no official statement was made about the move at the time.
“Yes, the state cabinet discussed the issue a few months ago. The state cabinet decided that restructuring the proposal should be placed before it at an appropriate time. After the finance minister’s announcement in the state budget, we have decided to move the proposal afresh and put the same before the state cabinet soon,” the officer said.