lannin in ndia         5.9
                and other provisions, the Constitution            and a socio-economic order based on
                vests power in the Union to ensure co-            justice and equality. Thus, the basic
                ordinated development in essential                objectives33 of planning were already given
                fields of activity, while preserving the          in the provisions of the Constitution of
                initiative and authority of the states in         India. These were emphatically stated in
                the spheres allotted to them.                     the First Five Year Plan (1951–56) itself,
            (b) The Constitution includes provisions              in the following words:
                for promoting cooperation on a                        “The urge to economic and social
                voluntary basis between the Union                 change under present conditions comes
                and the states and among states and               from the facts of poverty and of inequalities
                groups of states in investigation                 in income, wealth and opportunity. The
                of matters of common interest,                    elimination of poverty cannot obviously,
                in legislative procedures and in                  be achieved merely by redistributing
                administration,       thus     avoiding           existing wealth. Nor can a programme
                the rigidities inherent in federal                aiming only at raising production remove
                constitutions (Articles 249, 252,                 existing inequalities. These two have to be
                257, 258, 258-A, and 312). In other               considered together....”
                words, the objective is cooperative        (iv) The above objectives of planning were
                federalism.                                       time and again emphasised in one form
            (c) The Constitution also sets out in broad           or the other in the coming times. As the
                outline the pattern of the welfare                Second Five Year Plan (1956–61) said:
                state envisaged and the fundamental                   “The Plan has to carry forward the
                principles on which it should rest.               process initiated in the First Plan period.
                 These are the major cornerstones of              It must provide for a larger increase
            planning and its objectives enshrined in              in production, in investment and in
            the Constitution that will breed enough               employment. Simultaneously, it must
            Union–State tussle in coming decades and              accelerate the institutional changes
            make it compulsive for the government                 needed to make the economy more
            to resort to ‘reforms with a human face’              dynamic and more progressive in terms
            rhetoric. We can see the methodology of               no less of social than of economic ends.”
            planning taking a U-turn in the era of the      (v) The same objectives were repeated by the
            economic reforms since the early 1990s.               Sixth Five Year Plan (1980–85) in the
      (iii) The government resolution announcing                  following words:
            the setting up of the Planning                            “The basic task of economic planning
            Commission (March 1950) started with a
                                                                  in India is to bring about a structural
            reference to the constitutional provisions
                                                                  transformation of the economy so as
            bearing on the socio-economic objectives
                                                                  to achieve a high and sustained rate
            of the Constitution. The Fundamental
                                                                  of growth, a progressive improvement
            Rights and the Directive Principles of
                                                                  in the standard of living of the masses
            the Constitution assure every citizen,
                                                                  leading to eradication of poverty and
            among other things, adequate means of
            livelihood, opportunities for employment      33.  Ibid.