Planning Commission: An Overview

The planning commission was an important institution of the Government of India, which was formulated on 15th March 1950 under the Five-Year-Plans of India. It was considered the advisory body to the government on a wide array of issues related to economic development. The headquarters of the Planning Commission was located at Yojana Bhawan, New Delhi. The headquarters came under the area popularly known as the ‘Lutyens’ Delhi’, in which are located the entire premises of the government offices and buildings including the Yojana Bhawan, from where the British ruled over India after proclaiming Delhi as the capital of British India in 1911. The government offices and buildings located in Lutyens’ Delhi are still very much in use by the central government to date, post-partition. It was designed by Edwin Lutyens, jointly with Herbert Baker. The first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru was appointed as the Chairman of the Planning Commission. Since then, the chairman of the Planning Commission has been the Prime Minister until 2014, when the Planning Commission was replaced by the NITI Aayog, also chaired by the Prime Minister till date. The authority to form the planning commission body and headquarters was not derived from the Indian Constitution. Instead, it was an arm of the Central Government.

Dissolution of Planning Commission

Although the planning Commission played a significant role in the country’s emergence from a beaten nation during the days of the Raj to an independent country, this particular non-constitutional body is accused of being a soviet-styled bureaucratic body that interfered with the economic growth. Therefore, in the year 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced his intention of dissolving the Planning Commission and replacing it with the NITI Aayog. 

Background of Planning Commission

The Planning Commission of India used to formulate Five-Year Plans and was charged with the service of opportunities to all individuals for employment in the community services. The planning commission headquarters in New Delhi, headed by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, was set up by a government resolution, not via the Indian constitution. The primary objective of this non-constitutional body was to propel a rapid increase in the living standard of the citizens by optimal utilization of the nation’s resources, increasing production, and creating employment opportunities in the service of society. 

Composition of Planning Commission

The Planning Commission was composed of a Chairman, Deputy Chairman, Part-time members, and Ex-officio members.

• Chairman: Prime Minister of India was appointed as the Chairman of the Planning Commission. It was the Prime Minister who presided over the meetings of the commission. Thinking about the planning commission’s first executive, the same was Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Regarding the planning commission preceding the executive, he was Dr Manmohan Singh (the second Prime Minister of India after Jawaharlal Nehru). 
• Deputy Chairman: Deputy Chairman was the full-time functional head of the planning committee responsible for formulating and submitting the Five-Year Plan draft to the Central Cabinet. The Central cabinet used to appoint the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission for a fixed tenure.
• Part-time members: The part-time members of the Planning Commission included some central ministers of the country.
• Ex-officio members: The ex-officio members of the Planning Commission included Finance Minister and Planning Minister.

Mentioning the functions of the Planning Commission

Following mentioned were the functions of the planning commission headquarters located in New Delhi:

• To assess India’s material, capital, and human resources, including the technical workforce, and formulate proposals for augmenting the scarce resources.
• Formulating a plan of how the country’s resources can be used effectively and balanced.
• To define the priority in terms of stages in which the plan should be carried out and also the allocation of resources for the completion of each stage was proposed.
• The planning commission also determined the nature of the machinery required for successfully implementing each stage of the plan.
• To determine the conditions required to be established so that the formulated plan can be successfully implemented within the incumbent socio-political situation prevailing in the country.
• It was the planning commission that used to indicate the factors that tend to retard the economic development of the country.
• To appraise the progress achieved in the implementation of each stage of the planned time and again. In addition to this, the planning commission used to recommend the adjustments to the policy and measures which were essentially required vis-à-vis for the successful implementation of the plan.
• The Planning Commission was responsible for making necessary recommendations for those things which were required to facilitate the effective execution of the functions mentioned above. Such recommendations were usually related to the prevailing economic and [political conditions, current policies, development programs, etc. Also, the planning commission could recommend the solution of specific issues as specified by the central or the state governments.

Conclusion

On 15 March 1950, planning commission headquarters were set up in New Delhi, India. The primary purpose of establishing this commission was to recommend the Government of India on matters related to the economic and political conditions of the country. However, in the year 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi dissolved the planning commission and replaced the same by setting up NITI Aayog. To know more about the headquarters, composition, functions, dissolution, etc, consider going through the above-mentioned article.