New Delhi: The newly constituted National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog will monitor implementation of the 12th five-year plan of the previous UPA government and allocation of resources to the backward regions of the country, a report in the Hindustan Times suggests.
“NITI Aayog will be the successor in interest of the Planning Commission,” an order issued by the Cabinet Secretariat said. “All programmes initiated under the 12th five year plan ending in 2017 will be implemented,” an Aayog official said.
The order said the supersession of the resolution constituting the Planning Commission, issued on January 1, 2015, will not affect the operations unless modified by the Aayog. It said the NITI Aayog will have to ratify any change in the 12th five-year plan from its governing council.
The Aayog will remain the nodal office for the Unique Identification Authority of India, the body mandated to generate Aadhaar numbers for all Indians by March 2015, the report mentioned. The Aayog will also continue to allocate resources under the Backward Regions Grant Fund and special focus programmes.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will spell out the functional roadmap of the newly created Niti Aayog at its first meeting being scheduled on February 6. During the meet the members of the Aayog would also get to know Modi's expectation from the new body and also help them in finalising the plan of action of the new body. Moreover, it will also become clear, whether the Aayog will be recognised as government body or merely play the role of an economic think tank.
It is also expected that the meeting will bring more clarity on role Aayog will play in evolving model for revenue generation and expenditure realisation.
The meeting of the Aayog's governing council comprising all Chief Ministers and Lt. Governors of UTs is being scheduled for February 8.
The first Vice-Chairman of the Aayog, Arvind Panagariya, and full time member Bibek Debroy had joined earlier this month. The other full time member of body, V K Saraswat is expected to join shortly.
The ex-officio members of Aayog are Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu and Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh.
Aayog's special invitees are Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot and Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani.
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