I also had discussions with secretary of state, Mr. Deal Rusk. I also discused the question of supply of high performance fighter aircraft for the Indian Air Force, the need for which was established in exercise Shiksha held last year. Sir, regarding the first part of the observations made by the hon. Member arising out of the comments of professor Gadgil, as I remember, there were three points: Firstly that the planning commission had not developed appropriate criteria and secondly that it had not worked out the annual plans with appropriate break-ups, these were two things, and then there was another question about the planning commission mixing up with the policies of government and not giving proper advice, or submitting to wrong policies and also that the planning commission did not watch the progress of the plan even in its broadest elements. These are fairly grave charges. It is up to the planning commission to say what answer it has for these things. Regarding annual plans and break-ups, Sir, hon. Members here are familiar with the annual plans and that the central and state, governments basic their annual budgets on annual plans, after a very careful examination of all aspects and after discussions, prolonged discussions, between the states and the central ministries. All the material that is available is pressed into service. To that extent, professor Gadgil's charge is not correct. About criteria, the complaint may be true, because it takes experience, time and technical tools to develop the criteria and the yarsticks. Though we have made some progress in this direction since the first plan was got ready, I do not think that we can be or should be satisfied with the progress that has been made. Regarding the other things, the question of watching progress by the planning commission, even in general terms.
