New Delhi: Planning Commission Thursday said it has not scrapped Raghuram Rajan Committee report and it will be placed before the country's apex Planning body National Development Council headed by the Prime Minister for consideration.
The Raghuram Rajan Committee in its report had made a case for ending the special category status for poorer states and replacing Gadgil- Mukherjee formula with its Multi Dimensional Index (MDI) for allocation of funds to states.
"It is wrong to say that Rajan Committee report is scrapped by the Planning Commission and we are pondering over various recommendation made by the panel. It is still under consideration," Planning Minister Rajeev Shukla said.
The Minister's comments came after some media reports stated that Planning Commission had decided to scrap Raghuram Rajan index for Central fund distribution.
Explaining further, Shukla said, "We had long discussion over the report in the 'Internal Planning Commission' meeting and deliberations on the report is on.
"It is obvious that in future the report will be referred to National Development Council (NDC) for input and then for taking final call on the issue by political leadership" he added.
NDC is the apex planning body of the country, headed by the Prime Minister with all cabinet ministers and chief ministers on its board.
The Council is the appropriate authority to take final call on the matter.
The media reports also stated that a committee comprising Plan panel members Mihir Shah and Abhijit Sen has been set up for taking a fresh look on the issues involved in transferring money to state governments from Plan budget.
Throwing more light on the issue, Planning Commission Member Mihir told PTI, "Shah-Sen Committee has nothing to do with Rajan panel report. That Committee is about restructuring of Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF) as mandated by the NDC under the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17)."
Elaborating further Shah said, "Planning Commission cannot scrap the Rajan panel report. NDC can either accept or reject it. The Rajan panel report will be placed for consideration in the next meeting of the NDC."
The Shah-Sen Committee is looking into the issue of including those districts under the BRGF which are partly backward and partly developed.
"There are districts which come under the category of developed ones but its certain pockets or blocks are backward. Thus those districts would be included under BRGF," Shah said.
According to Shah, at present BRGF covers 272 districts and the programme will cover 350 districts in future. The Committee has prepared a note for Ministry of Panchayati Raj for the purpose.
