The Trinamool Congress on Sunday came down heavily on the NDA Government for its decision to scrap the Planning Commission saying the party would “oppose the move” in Parliament.
Addressing mediapersons, senior party leader and MP Sudip Bandopadhyay questioned the “propriety of such unilateral decisions on such important issues concerning national interest” and added “we stand firmly on our line not to support the move in any way. We will oppose it at every level.”Bandopadhyay questioned the need of doing away with a body once institutionalised by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose “without even discussing it with the other parties or taking up the issue in Parliament.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in his Independence Day speech from the Red Fort announced that the Planning Commission would be discontinued keeping in view the changed global and Indian economic situation. A new institution would set up to replace the Commission, he had said.Reacting to Modi’s speech the Trinamool leader said, “it is our party’s view that dissolving of the Planning Commission cannot be a right step and we will oppose this move both within and outside Parliament,” adding the people of the country would understand the Trinamool’s line and support it.
Bandopadhyay said, “the Planning Commission acted as a bridge between the Centre and the States and its discontinuation would amount to destroying that bridge. The Commission plays and has always played huge role in the making of a modern India by building the nation’s infrastructure and facilitating the development of many rural areas.”
Wondering whether the Centre was devising a plan to tighten its stranglehold on the States Bandopadhyay said, “in the present system the States take their economic problems to the Planning Commission from where it is transmitted to the Central Government. After this system is discontinued it will be very difficult for the State Governments to get its message and demands across to the Central Government.
“It is baffling to understand as to how the Centre could take a sudden decision like this on such a big issue without even consulting the other parties and even taking it up in Parliament,” he said rejecting suggestions that removing of the Planning Commission was intended at giving more economic liberty to the States in future.
The Trinamool Congress and its chief Mamata Banerjee has been at loggerheads with the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre right from its inception. While most other Opposition Chief Ministers have met the Prime Minister at least once Banerjee has avoided such a meeting till now.The Trinamool’s decision to oppose the Centre’s decision on Planning Commission is being viewed as a part of Bengal CM’s political compulsion to oppose any move made by the saffron Government.