Below is the text of the speech delivered by Manik Sarkar, chief minister of Tripura at the first meeting of the governing council of National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog on February 8, 2015 at New Delhi.

NITI Aayog, which has replaced the Planning Commission, should not push India towards a market-driven economy and privatisation in all spheres. Public resources should not be put at the disposal of the private sector and the market forces.

You all will agree that any planned development process in the country needs to aim at the upliftment of all the sections of the society, thereby enabling the people to live a decent life. For achieving this goal, it is necessary to ensure that all the people have food security, housing, access to education and healthcare as also adequate opportunities for productive employment that enable them to earn a meaningful living.

It is often claimed that India is among the fastest-growing economies in the world. The important question, however, is whether the benefits of this growth are reaching the poorest and weakest sections of the society. The reality is that the gulf between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ has been widening.

Planning or development can have no meaning if a very large section of the people continues to live in abject poverty and are unemployed. It should be our endeavour to harness the human resources available in the country and provide gainful employment to the unemployed in the country, be they educated, semi-educated or uneducated, so that everyone can contribute in the production and nation building process. The plan should, therefore, be employment-oriented; every person should get employment as per his or her ability and skill. There has to be a definite time frame for solving the problem of poverty.

Agenda 1: Resolution setting up of NITI and notification constituting the full time organisational framework.

For addressing the issues jointly by centre and states in an institutional manner, the non-ex officio members of the commission, ie, its “expert” members, must be decided on the basis of a consensus, reached  through consultations between the centre and the states; (ii), there may be as many chief ministers of states among its ex officio members, as central ministers; (iii) there may be  one chief minister from a North–Eastern state among the ex officio members of the commission; (iv) both the chief minister from the North-East, and the other chief ministers must be chosen on the basis of a policy of rotation, so that every state gets a chance to be represented on the commission at some time; (v) the full commission including the ex officio members must meet at least twice in a year.

Agenda 2: From Planning Commission to NITI- Transition Arrangements.

Since the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) is in its third year of the implementation, the suggestion for reworking the procedure of Annual Plan reviews is necessary. These reviews and corrective actions shall have to be practical and result oriented.

It is pertinent to mention here that the mere achievement of a high rate of GDP growth does not ensure that employment in the economy will grow at a rate adequate to reduce the magnitude of unemployment, under employment and disguised unemployment, or to have any impact on hunger and poverty. Hence the NITI Aayog, while paying the attention on GDP growth, must focus directly on improving the conditions of life of the bulk of the people within the shortest possible time.

Agenda 3: Charter for NITI - Framework for National Development Priorities, Policies and Sectoral strategies.

Without any time frame, a plan means nothing. Hence the Five-Year Plan cycle must be continued. Some targets may take longer than one Five-Year plan to get realised. But the focus of the NITI Aayog must be on their realisation in a time-bound manner. Annual Plans are a part of the Five Year Plan and provide an excellent opportunity to take stock of the progress made in each state towards achieving the Five Year Plan target. They must therefore be continued.

NITI Aayog, according to our perspective, will have to play a powerful role for national development priorities, policies and sectoral strategies. All initiatives such as the innovation and knowledge hub should be brought under the overarching guidance of this Aayog instead of being independent competing agencies. Even though in our perspective the NITI Aayog is not concerned with the growth rate per se, but with the material conditions for creating an India of free and equal citizens, it will obviously have to grapple with issues of production, incentives to producers, and the whole range of policies that impinge on production. Its concern with these matters must be linked to its focus on providing a universal basic minimum, and not derived from some abstract target-setting exercise.

For instance, the provision of adequate nutrition to everyone would necessarily require a substantial effort with regard to food-grain production and procurement, which in turn can be successful only if the farmers are provided adequate support in the form of inputs, credit, remunerative prices, and procurement machinery. It would also require that the consumers are provided adequate support through affordable issue prices and the requisite amount of purchasing power. There has been in the more recent years, for example, a comparative neglect of agricultural research in the country, because of which the reliance of multinational agribusiness has increased greatly. This portends ill for the future. The development of knowledge, supported by public funding, for the needs of production in the country in accordance with social priorities, is absolutely essential if “planning” is to fulfill its purpose.

Innovation and knowledge development cannot merely be made state-specific. Though states will no doubt have their own specific requirements which will need attention, knowledge development must above all serve the needs of the nation as a whole, and hence must be “planned” under overarching guidance of new NITI Aayog.

Though India is now an emerging economy in the world but the North Eastern region of India has remained relatively less-developed due to geographical isolation and various other factors, despite being a strategic region of the country with rich socio-cultural heritage as well as natural resources. Unfortunately, Annexure-IV of the agenda note does not specifically spell out any specific initiatives/projects for the North Eastern region.

Agenda 4: Cooperative Federalism.

Under the Indian federal system, most of the responsibility for undertaking socio-economic development lies with the states, but the financial resources required for undertaking such development are controlled largely by the centre. There is an urgent need to have a re-look at the centre-state financial relations, so that the states get the resources required for effectively discharging their developmental responsibilities.

For quite some time now, states have been demanding that the union government should devolve 50 per cent of its total revenue collections to the states to enable them to meet their burgeoning fiscal needs and for socio-economic development initiatives. That demand stands. We shall however confine ourselves below only to Central Plan Assistance.

A significant proportion of plan funds currently flow through line ministries under various centrally sponsored schemes. These centrally sponsored schemes in turn have to be distinguished from parliament-approved programmes like the MGNREGS.  Of late it has even sought to reduce the scale of MGNERGS, which would hurt the poor and the destitute people in rural India as a whole. Besides, it is terrible precedent for the democratic system in our country if a parliament-enacted scheme is arbitrarily curtailed by the central executive, acting entirely on its own, without going back to parliament.

All future new schemes whether fully financed by the centre or jointly funded by the centre and the states must be discussed by the NITI Aayog and have its approval, in which case the voices of the states can be heard.

Members are aware about the North Eastern Council (NEC), which was set up as a statutory body by an Act of parliament. The setting up of NEC was an acknowledgement of the fact that the North-East is under-developed vis-à-vis the rest of the country and therefore, a mechanism for additional funding for the region was envisaged. NITI needs to examine the status of NEC, in the context of formation of regional councils. It shall study the functioning of NEC so far, so that these learning lessons and experiences can be effectively utilised, in formulating regional councils.

Agenda 5: Thrust on Infrastructure Projects.

The North Eastern region of the country is admittedly among the most backward regions of the country. The region has suffered from geographical isolation and poor infrastructure for so long, resulting in slower economic growth and higher incidence of poverty and unemployment, which has been one of the major contributory factors for insurgency in the region, which, in turn, acted as a major constraint in the development process. The government investment in the region has been less than that in other parts of the country and the private investment has been negligible. The North Eastern region has to make up for the lost decades and has to grow faster than the rest of the country, if we are to reach the level of development in the rest of the country.

The recent developments have, however, opened new vistas for the development of the North Eastern region. The Look-East Policy/Act East Policy of the government of India focusing on the South East Asian countries and the recent agreements signed between India and Bangladesh for improving connectivity and trade, if properly implemented, have the potential to transform the North Eastern region from a geographically-isolated remote corner to a strategic region of the country. NITI shall lay emphasis on implementation of projects that will facilitate the connectivity of the North Eastern region with Bangladesh and with the South East Asian nations. This will create the enabling environment for faster socio-economic development of the region.

The state government has submitted status of infrastructure projects and actions taken, in response to the letter of the PMO. We welcome the suggestion of formation of project monitoring groups headed by the chief secretaries.

Agenda 6: Any other Item.

A conference of the chief ministers of the NE states was organised by MoDoNER  on 21-22 August, 2014 wherein six working groups were formed, namely, (i) connectivity issues addressing roads/ waterways/ railways/ aviation/ telecom issues, (ii) HRD including education (primary & higher) and skill development,  (iii) trade, commerce and industrial development, (iv) water supply, health & sanitation, (v) agriculture/ horticulture/ animal husbandry/ sericulture and minor irrigation and (vi) power and tourism for the overall development of the NE region. NITI may like to see those reports in the context of NE regional development.

Before I conclude, I would like to mention that the NITI Aayog has to play a pro-active role in the planned development of the country. NITI Aayog ought to become a lively and living body for periodic discussions and taking decisions on important issues affecting the economic well being of the country.