12th Plan document likely to be delayed further

New Delhi: The 12th Plan document, which seeks to raise annual economic growth rate to 9 per cent during the five-year period (2012-17), may not be ready for the implementation by September as envisaged earlier.

"It would be difficult to have 12th Plan document ready by September as many working groups have not submitted their final reports to their respective divisions," a source said.

At present many working groups set up under 26 divisions of the have yet to submit the final reports, he said.

These divisions would write and finalise the sectoral chapters of the document on the basis of the inputs provided by these working groups.

According to the information available, the financial resources division of the Commission had constituted four working groups, but only one has submitted its report.

Similarly, for social justice and women empowerment, four working groups were constituted, but none has finalised its report. On science and technology, 14 working groups were constituted out of which only eight has submitted their reports.

After the finalisation of the Plan document, it will be placed before the full Planning Commission, the Union cabinet and the National Development Council (NDC), the highest policy making body of the country. This exercise is likely to take time, the source added.

As far as progress of the 12th Plan documentation is concerned, the NDC had approved the 'Approach Paper' on August 20 last year. The paper provides a broad framework of the government policy to be pursued in the five-year period to achieve the desired growth rate.

The Approach Paper, which aims to raise growth rate to 9 per cent in the current Plan from about 8 per cent in the 11th plan, would be the basis for running the various government programmes and schemes till the new Plan is unveiled and implemented.

The documents for 10th and 11th Plans too were finalised much later after the beginning of the respective Plan periods.

The 11th Plan which began in April 2007 was approved by the NDC in December 2007. Similarly, the 10th Plan which begun in April 2002, was cleared for implementation by the NDC in December 2002.