Nath hits out at plan panel
Hitting out at the Planning Commission, the road transport minister, Mr Kamal Nath, on Monday said that it is an “armchair advisor” and is “like a buffet table” from where one should choose according to one’s own digestive ability”.
He also mentioned that had the plan panel been involved the country would not have got its first world-class airport in the national capital.
Mr Nath has for long been at loggerheads with the Planning Commission over his target of building 20 km road a day. He said when the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, inaugurated the new terminal at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Saturday, he admirably asked how was such a feat achieved.
Answering his query, he said the people responsible for building the airport said, “Because the planning commission and their people had nothing to do with it.”
Interestingly Mr Nath took a dig at the panel in the presence of its deputy chairman, Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia. Both of them were attending a seminar on role of Public Private Partnership in state highways. The planning commission organised the event.
However, advisor to the deputy chairman, Mr Gajendra Haldea, interjected saying the commission was very much involved in the Rs 9,000-crore project completed in a record 37 months. “We were involved in the airport project,” Mr Haldea said to which Mr Nath retorted, “you were involved in the beginning”.
Mr Haldea, then retorted, as he said, “So ok, Mr Nath...You mean to say that the planning commission should be there at the start of the project and should leave after that.”
On this Mr Nath decided to go figurative in describing the plan panel and said, “The planning commission is an armchair advisor, which is like a buffet table from where one should choose bites according to one’s digestive capacity.”
Taking a dig at the commission for its assessment that the target set by his ministry was not realistic, Mr Nath said, “Producing a book is one thing and producing a road is another thing.”
He even questioned the quality of reports produced by the Plan panel. “You (Planning Commission) collect something from here, something from there and produce a book. It is all very well when you are an armchair advisor,” he remarked, adding “Book (report) should not only be well-bound, but it should have content also.”
Later, talking to reporters, Dr Ahluwalia termed Nath’s broadside as “constructive criticism”, but added that the Planning Commission was not an implementing body. He agreed that there are problems within the commission. “We are are sorting them out,” he added.
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