New Deputy Chairman for Planning Commission soon

The Planning Commission may soon be reconstituted with the Government working on appointing a new Deputy Chairman and members to the panel. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is also the Chairman of the Commission, is likely to soon name one of the senior BJP leaders to the panel which gives crucial inputs on long-term development in various sectors. Sources said today the appointments may be made soon as the Prime Minister has started working on reviving the all-important panel.

Speculation is rife on who would be the panel's Deputy Chairman after Montek Singh Ahluwalia resigned. The names of senior BJP leaders and former Union Ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie are doing the rounds for the important position. There was speculation that the new BJP-led government would disband or scale down the Planning Commission after Prime Minister Modi had made a scathing attack on the panel.