Panel: Make NITI Aayog independent

NEW DELHI: In a suggestion that will give more teeth to the NITI Aayog if implemented, the standing committee on finance has recommended that the think tank be made an independent body and the ministry of planning be disbanded since it doesn’t have much work, according to the panel. The committee was chaired by M Veerappa Moily of the Congress party.

“The time is opportune for NITI Aayog to comprehensively converge its respective mandate without losing focus on the objective for which it has been created,” said the 12th report of the committee for the planning ministry. “In this context, the committee would recommend that NITI Aayog should be made an independent body while dismantling the ministry of planning as such, which is now left without any significant function or mandate.” The committee, however, refrained, from assessing the functioning of the Aayog.