Montek retained as plan panel dy chief

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New Delhi: The government on Friday reconstituted the Planning Commission that will have Montek Singh Ahluwalia continue as Deputy Chairman and three new members including former member of the PM's economic panel Saumitra Chaudhuri.

The others who will be joining the Commission as members are Narendra Jadhav, honorary vice-chancellor of Pune University and Mihir Shah, Secretary of Samaj Pragati Sahayog.

The government has also retained Abhijit Sen, Syeda Hameed and B K Chaturvedi as members in the reconstituted Commission, sources in the Prime Minister's Office said.

The existing members of the Commission who did not figure in the list of the reconstituted plan panel are Kirit Parikh, V L Chopra, B Mungekar and B N Yugandhar. They are believed to have received letters of appreciation from the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the services rendered to the Commission.

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Ahluwalia along with with other members of the panel had submitted his resignation to the Prime Minister on completion of the term of the last government.

A close confidant of Singh, Ahluwalia played a key role in formulation of policies of the previous UPA government and his retention would ensure continuity in the policies of the government.

He was also instrumental in framing India's response to the global financial crisis and represented the country at important meetings such as G-20.

The newly-constituted Planning Commission will also be providing inputs to the budget for 2009-10 which is likely to be tabled in Parliament during the first week of July.

The other important task before the new panel would be to undertake a mid-term review of the ambitious Eleventh Plan that aimed at raising the economic growth to 9 per cent during the plan period (2007-12).

However, the global financial crisis pulled down India's growth rate to 6.7 per cent during the 2008-09 derailing the growth targets.

Even during the current fiscal, the Reserve Bank has projected a growth rate of 6 per cent.

Also, President Pratibha Patil during her address to the joint session of Parliament on Thursday said, “The current financial year is expected to see a slowing down of growth on account of global recession.”