New Delhi, September 8
Within hours of the stringent criticism from the Left parties on the UPA government's move to include experts from the World Bank and others in the plan panel, the Planning Commission said the views of the "outside bodies" would be used only for consultation and had nothing to do with the working of the organisation.
"The logic is to get opinions from outside on the progress of the plan schemes and the effectiveness of policies," said Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
Stating that there was no representative of outside bodies in the actual working of the commission, he said they would only provide inputs for the mid-term appraisal of the tenth plan.
On the eve of the full Planning Commission meeting, the panel came in for sharp criticism for the UPA government's move to include representatives of the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and an American consultancy group in various Planning Commission bodies.
