Move to replace Planning Commission with Niti Aayog dangerous: Congress

NEW DELHI: Congress today opposed the creation of NITI Aayog claiming that the move to replace the Planning Commission was a "dangerous" one and an attack on the federal structure, and was aimed at centralising powers in the Prime Minister's Office.

"It is a matter of concern as what has happened is a direct attack on the federal structure. It is an attempt at centralisation and making the plan body an extension of the PMO," party spokesman Ajoy Kumar told reporters here.

Insisting that the move was not only wrong but "dangerous" as proper development could take place only through "bottoms up" approach, he said the creation of NITI Aayog was an "attack on the freedom of the states and the Panchayati Raj institutions."

Kumar wondered as to how the "centralised" body would decide on problems of development of a vast India when decentralisation is the key to the progress of villages and the countryside.

The reaction of Congress came a day after the Socialist-era Planning Commission was replaced by a new think-tank, NITI Aayog, that will be headed by the Prime Minister and will have all Chief Ministers as members in a broad-based Governing Council to involve states in evolving national development priorities.

Congress leaders have also suggested that "anti- Nehruvianism" and "anti-Congressism" was behind the government's decision of restructuring and renaming the Planning Commission as "NITI Aayog".