Panels to study Plan aspects

new delhi: two joint committees of the union finance ministry and the planning commission are to study and report in 10 days on two aspects of the under-finalisation national plan for both, the coming year and the next five-year one beginning march. one panel, chaired by planning commission member n k singh, is to report on reforms in chosen sectors, including agriculture, food management, railways and construction.the other panel, to be chaired by commission secretary ajit kumar, is to report on the gross budgetary support required in the plan. the decisions on these two panels were taken at a long meeting on friday evening between union finance minister yashwant sinha and pc deputy chairman k c pant. the two will meet again on january 23, when both groups will present their reports. the nk singh panel also includes ajit kumar, economic affairs secretary c m vasudev, pc advisers arvind virmani and pranab sen and additional secretary, finance, adarsh kishore. the gbs panel comprises ajit kumar and his finance director, and from the finance ministry, the secretaries for economic affairs and expenditure, and the joint secretary (budget). yashwant sinha told pant his ministry would be holding meetings with other important infrastructure ones. he'd like the pc to be represented at these meetings. broadly, said pant, friday's meeting identified ''priority areas and difficulties in implementation.'' the decision to establish the two panels was a sequel. the approach paper to the, coming, tenth five-year plan, approved by the national development council (which the prime minister chairs and of which sinha and pant are both members), wants a gbs of rs 7 trillion for 2002-07. this is nearly twice the gbs which sinha's ministry made available for the ninth (1997-2002) plan.