PM Modi’s vision paper on backburner

New Delhi: The “15-year vision document” of the NDA government, which was set to replace the Nehruvian era legacy of the Five-Year Plan, has been relegated to the backburner. Supposed to begin soon after the culmination of 12th Five Year Plan period on March 31, 2017, the vision document — which was being crafted by Niti Aayog — has failed to materialise by that time as consultations with states could not be completed. With several schemes, which were invoked under 12th Plan period, still in progress these have now been extended till 2020 and made part of the Centre’s new “Three-Year Action Agenda”, unveiled in August this year.

With the focus of the Niti Aayog currently on giving a definite shape to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new five-year initiative on promoting good governance, “Sankalp se Siddhi” (from 2017-2022) and the three-year action agenda, it would be difficult to “dovetail” the 15-year vision document with these schemes as of now, top government sources informed this newspaper.

The vision document — a brainchild of Prime Minister Narendra Modi — was supposed to take over immediately after the expiry of the 12th Five-Year Plan period on March 31, 2017. However, as its preparations involved detailed consultations between Niti Aayog and all states, the vision document remained far from completion even as the 12th Plan period ended. 

Subsequently, with the government staring at a vacuum, all incomplete schemes of the 12th Plan were included in the Three-Year Action Agenda, which was originally supposed to be a three-year roadmap for analysing the financial requirements of the programmes enlisted in the vision document. 

The Three-Year Action Agenda, which was finalised by the government in August, suggests a host of reforms in taxation, agriculture and energy sectors, with an aim to accelerate growth and increase employment opportunities. With the process of formulating the vision document starting in May 2016, it was always going to be a race against time for Niti Aayog to complete it by December 2016, sources said.