FROM 50 YEARS AGO in the public sector of the Plan may have to It is now understood that another Rs 15 to be increased by about Rs 300 to Rs 400 Rs 25 crores would be required for building crores. He also conceded that the Plan may three townships near the new steel plants and require 6 or 7 years to fulfil. The statement the outlay for coal production in the public publicly cast the long-felt doubt on the basic sector would have to be increased from Rs 40 structure of the Plan but it was far from crores, provided in the Draft Outline, to Rs 60 frank. crores. The Commission may also have to find
Vol VIII, No 17, April 28, 1956 The truth is that the country’s mounting money for exploitation of oil found at
defence requirements alone may require a Naharkatiya, in partnership with the AssamWho Fathers the Plan? capital expenditure of the order of Rs 300 Oil Co, and possibly elsewhere.(Weekly Notes) crores. Rs 200 crores was the figure contem-Meanwhile the defence requirements seem
plated when the Draft Outline was pub-to have soared in view of the increasing A Special correspondent from Delhi writes:-lished: it was not included in the estimates American arms aid to Pakistan and of course
During the last five years, the Planning of expenditure for reasons which have little the Finance Minister has known it all along. Commission has steadily lost authority. to do with security. If annual returns of the When he spoke of increasing the size of the Now it is on the brink of losing the Second amount that we spend on our defence forces Rs 4800 crore Plan, he obviously gave figures Five Year Plan. Recent pronouncements of and equipment, included in the budget, do which were once again under-estimates. the Ministers of Finance and of Commerce not endanger the nation’s freedom, surely an To the above, the correspondent adds this and Industry have reduced the blue-prints overall estimate of our expenditure on de-comment. to nonsense. This has happened even before fence installations over the next five year “Top authorities in the Planning Commisthe final drafts have seen the light of the period would not have made the country any sion no longer try to gloss over these and the day. In a sense, the Second Plan will be more vulnerable. Anyhow, the Planning like aberrations. The talk of Plan’s flexibility still-born. Commission chose to ignore the financial sounds hollow even to their own ears. Few
Everyone in the Planning Commission implications of the defence programme to-conscientious artists can denounce their own knows that the Plan is neither a true esti-gether with that of the programme for the handiwork as dishonest with greater repulsion mateofexpenditure nor of the time required development of atomic energy (Rs 80 crores), than some members of the Commissiondisplay to raise the resources or to spend them. raising the salary of primary school teachers towards their own brain child.” Shri Chintaman Deshmukh admitted as much (Rs 66 crores), oil exploration (Rs 30 crores) Unwilling godfathers, or spurious parentwhen he said that the outlay contemplated and subsidy to Amber Charkha (Rs 80 crores). hood?
Economic and Political Weekly April 29, 2006
