Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, Jul 13: A committee headed by retired bureaucrat R N Das, advisor to the State Planning Board will prepare a report for the overhaul of the planning process in the state within a month.

This was decided by the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik apparently guided by the scrapping of the planning commission by the Narendra Modi government which has been replaced by Niti Aayog.

Development commissioner UN Behera and additional chief secretary in the finance department R Balkrishnan will be two other members in the panel, officials said here.

The panel will look into ways to reforming the planning process both at the state and district levels to make it more people-friendly and create scope for use of professional expertise in the process.

The committee will suggest ways for decentralisation of power at the district level and identification of projects both at the state and the district level.

Earlier last month, the Naveen Patnaik government had decided to restructure Planning Board by developing it as a ‘Professional Think Tank’.

Interestingly, the state planning board has met only once in the last 11 years and the planning board has never utilized its power even though formulation of policy guidelines for short-term and long-term annual plan and five-year plans is part of the activities of the board.