PM Modi meets CMs on new Planning Commission; Mamata, Omar skip

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is meeting the chief ministers of all states on Sunday to hear their views on the restructuring of the Planning Commission.

"Detailed consultations have been held with experts and economists and within the Planning Commission itself on its restructuring," Modi said on Friday in his first intervention during question hour in the Lok Sabha.

“We are just taking forward this process of giving shape to a new body,” he added. Indeed, it was the first time since his maiden address to the nation on the Independence Day that Modi had spoken on the need to reshape the Planning Commission.

However, amidst the ongoing tussle between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Trinamool Congress (TMC) over several issues like Burdwan blast case and Saradha chit fund scam in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will skip the meeting. West Bengal CM is likely to send state Finance minister Amit Mitra as the state government's representative to attend the meeting instead.

"There is no scheduled Delhi visit", a West Bengal Secretariat official said when asked about Banerjee's Delhi visit. Though no reason was officially cited, he said Banerjee is scheduled to leave on a two-day tour infrastructure-cum-promiton trip to Jharkhali / Sajnekhali / Sunderbans tomorrow.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has also decided to skip the meeting citing ongoing Assembly polls in the state as the reason, as per news reports.

The Chief Minister had recently urged the opposition parties to unite against the Narendra Modi government in Parliament.

The Planning Commission was conceived by India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru who thought India's goals and objectives can be best addressed with a planned economy, an idea he borrowed from the then Soviet Union. Accordingly, it was formed March 15, 1950, and with it were born the Five-Year Plans, which went into formulation from 1951.