NEW DELHI- Structural Changes Ruled Out

NEW DELHI Structural Changes Ruled Out B M THE special meeting of the Consultative Committee of MPs on Planning last week to discuss a private member, Vasanth Satbe's note on 'structural' changes in the economy was a novel happening. The Planning Commission, it was suggested, had felt that a "wider national debate" on the pros and cons of the suggestions made by Sathe would be useful, even though it found many of Sathe's propositions unacceptable or infeasible. What this exercise, in fact, indicated was the utter apathy that pervades Yojana Bhavan these days. The planners are willing to reduce themselves to the position of a debating society while major issues of economic policy and management of the economy are settled elsewhere.