New Delhi: Strongly batting for disbanding the Planning Commission, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on Sunday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure that the new proposed body be effective to move towards the goal of cooperative federalism.
Contending that development of India lay in the development of states, Mr Rao said the country could not be strong if the states remained weak and proposed that for effective interaction, the Council of Chief Ministers under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister may participate as members of ‘Team India’ to deliberate and decide on all the general and important policy issues.
“However, for issues specific to a region or a few states, such as the Ganga Action Plan or Left Wing Extremism, Chief Ministers of the concerned states may be grouped into sub-groups to deliberate on issues specific to them,” Mr Rao said.
A permanent secretariat, with representation from each state, may be put in place to assist Team India in its deliberations, Mr Rao said, adding that present plan cycle of five-years did not look beyond the short and medium term and the plan got prepared only after the completion of one or two years in the five-year cycle.
