Make Planning Commission autonomous, more powerful, committed: Manik Sarkar

AGARTALA: Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar differed with the Centre's idea of converting the Planning Commission to a mere think tank and has proposed for making it autonomous, more powerful and committed to the people.

"Its periphery of work is limited and we feel the need to make it more powerful, autonomous and committed to the people so that it can function more meaningfully," Sarkar told reporters here while commenting on his recent meeting on the fate of the Planning Commission in Delhi.

"A GDP-based development is now going on in the country, but higher GDP doesn't mean it can address the basic needs of the people and create more employment."

"We want improvement of common people's standard of living, qualitative education and healthcare for every citizen, drinking water facilities and residence for everyone. Improvement of GDP will not always help improving quality of life of the common people," Sarkar said.

He further added that there should be adequate representation from the states in the proposed body.

There should be an annual plan discussion between the Centre and the states and the body should not be guided or influenced by the thoughts of market driven economy, he said.