Wednesday, December 26, 2012

National Development Council(NDC)

The National Development Council (NDC) or the Rashtriya Vikas Parishad is the apex body for decision making and deliberations on development matters in India, presided over by the PM of India.

NDC was set up on August 6, 1952 to strengthen and mobilize the effort and resources of the nation in support of the Plan, to promote common economic policies in all vital spheres, and to ensure the balanced and rapid development of all parts of the country.

NDC comprises the Prime Minister, the Union Cabinet Ministers, Chief Ministers of all States or their substitutes, representatives of the union territories and the members of the Commissions. It is an extra-constitutional and non-statutory body.

NDC's status is advisory to planning commission but not binding.

57th NDC Meet - Thursday Dec 27,2012

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave a clear indication of hikes in fuel and electricity prices in his speech at the inauguration of the 57th meeting of the National Development Council here on Thursday.

“Coal, petroleum products and natural gas are all priced well below international prices. This also means that electricity is effectively underpriced, especially for some consumers. Immediate adjustment of prices to close the gap is not feasible, I realise this, but some phased price adjustment is necessary.

The Planning Commission plans to seek a lowering of the growth rate for the 12th Five Year Plan(2012-17) to 8 % at the meeting of the National Development Council (NDC) in Delhi.

"Our objective is that we should be going in for a more optimistic scenario... And probably if we reflect, what we now know (is that) instead of 8.2 per cent, it would be better to pitch it at 8 per cent. I would raise that issue in the NDC," Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said.

For 2012-13 as a whole, which would be the first year of the 12th Plan, the growth rate has been estimated at 5.7-5.9 per cent, which would be the lowest in the decade.

The economy in the first half of the current fiscal grew at 5.4 per cent, lower than 7.3 per cent growth recorded in the corresponding period last year.

The scaling down of the growth target, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said, follows changes in the global and domestic economy since the approval of the Approach Paper by the NDC in October last year

This is the second time that the Commission will be scaling down growth projection for the 12th Plan (2012-17).

After initially estimating the growth rate at 9 per cent in the Approach Paper, it lowered the target to 8.2 per cent in September 2012 in view of global economic worries and persistent sluggishness in domestic growth.

Note

In the 11th Five Year Plan(2007-12), the average annual growth rate was 7.9 per cent.

Chief Ministers who attended the meet

TN CM J.Jayalalithaa ‘humiliated,’ walks out of NDC meeting

TN CM Jayalalithaa on Thursday Dec 27,2012 walked out of the 57th meeting of the National Development Council (NDC), accusing the Centre of “stifling the voice of Chief Ministers,’’ “treating shabbily a constitutional authority” and “humiliating” them by ringing a bell during her speech.

“The voice of the CMs has been stifled. They were not allowed to speak freely. At the very beginning we were told that only 10 minutes will be allotted to each CM and after that a bell will ring. This is unheard of. This has never been the practice before,” she told journalists while coming out of the venue – Vigyan Bhavan.

“If this is the way they are going to treat the CMs, the Centre could stop calling such conferences and stop inviting them and we have got enough work back home.” J Jayalalithaa said

Informed sources said she had hardly completed speaking from the 10th page of a 28-page speech copy when the bell was rung and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was conducting the proceedings, called the next speaker — Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister Anam Ramnarayan Reddy — to speak.

At this stage Ms. Jayalalithaa moved out of the hall along with State Finance Minister O. Pannerselvam, Chief Secretary Debendranath Sarangi and other officials. But she did not make any announcement about her protest in the hall.

Immediately after that she left for Chennai.

Comments on Jayalalithaa’s charge

Without saying so in so many words, Dr.Manmohan Singh, in his concluding remarks in the evening, said: “I thank all the CMs for complying with the electronically imposed time limit. Had they not complied with the limit, we would not have been able to accommodate 40 speakers even in this long session.”

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Shukla reasoned that since there was a long list of speakers, including 35 Chief Ministers, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, the Finance Minister and the Agriculture Minister, the time allocated to each had been fixed.

Gujarat CM Narendra Modi said sarcastically, “The less they hear, the better it is for them [the Centre].”

A similar walkout, 28 years ago

At that time, on July 12, 1984, the four Chief Ministers — N.T. Rama Rao (Andhra Pradesh), Jyoti Basu (West Bengal), Ramakrishna Hegde (Karnataka) and Nripen Chakraborty (Tripura) — were protesting against the dismissal of the Farooq Abdullah government in Jammu and Kashmir.

As Rama Rao began reading a statement on behalf of the four Chief Ministers, he was interrupted by the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi(news report carried by The-Hindu the next day on July 13, 1984 stated that sharp exchanges between Rama Rao and Indira Gandhi) But Rama Rao and the three other Chief Ministers insisted that he be allowed to complete his statement. Indira Gandhi took the view that the NDC was not a political forum and the meeting was meant to discuss the Seventh Five-Year Plan. After the four Chief Ministers walked out, a resolution, adopted by the Council condemned their action. It was moved by Kerala Chief Minister K. Karunankaran and seconded by Panruti S. Ramachandran, who was then the Electricity Minister of Tamil Nadu.

Previous Meetings of NDC
The first meeting chaired by Prime Minister,Jawaharlal Nehru on Nov 8–9, 1952.
So far 56 meetings had been held.
The 55th Meeting of National Development Council was held on July 24,2010 at Vigyan Bhavan,New Delhi