body designed to give national hacking to the planning process. The nadir in this regard has been touched at the last meeting of the NDC. But it is not only the NDC which has been so degraded. The entire edifice of the machinery of planning has been undermined over the years. The Planning Commission, in particular, has ceased to be an independent advisory body of experts as originally conceived, It has been turned into one more department the Central government which is expected to docilely carry out the orders of the government. It has naturally lost in this process its authority and prestige as an expert body. The downgrading of the Commission has been further highlighted by the appointment of other committees and commissions which are supposed to give advice on economic matters and issues directly to the Prime Minister. It has also become now a well established practice that the active head of the Commission should be a cabinet Minister who becomes the ex-officio Deputy Chairman of the Commission. The choice of Members is on a highly partisan basis with political conformity receiving greater weightage than expert.
