NEW DELHI-Seventh Plan Going through the Motions

NEW DELHI Seventh Plan: Going through the Motions B M THE planners in yojana Bhavan expect to finish writing the draft of the Seventh Five-Year Plan by end July or early August and to present it to the Union Cabinet thereafter. According to this time-table, the National Development Council will be convened to consider the draft Plan in September. This has been possible because the planners were able to persuade the Prime Minister to hold a meeting of the full Planning Commission to determine the overall size of the Plan before leaving for his foreign tour with which he was evidently very much preoccupied. Earlier the Prime Minister had twice postponed the scheduled meeting of the Planning Commission because of more pressing preoccupations. Development planning cannot after all have a very high priority on the Prime Minister's agenda when liberalisation of the economy, so as to give private enterprise and market forces freer play, is the credo. However, the making of a development plan has its own uses and there is no question, at least as yet, of formally abandoning planning.