Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday stood  in defence of Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who came under attack from the Left parties for engaging experts from multilateral institutions like the World Bank in the Commission.

Manmohan Singh, who also heads the government's Plan think-tank, complimented the internal Planning Commission for starting the process of mid-term appraisal in 'right earnest.'

"The internal commission has started the process in right earnest, including extensive consultations with central ministries, state governments and outside experts," he said.

The prime minister's comment assumes importance in the wake of sharp criticism of Ahluwalia from the Left parties on engaging experts.

The four Left parties, which are supporting the government from outside, had questioned the merit of involving outside experts and asked the government to 'reconsider' the move to include representatives of the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and an American consultancy group in various Planning Commission bodies.

Describing the step as 'unwarranted,' the Left parties asked the government to 'explain why it wants World Bank representation in the Plan panel when the Congress in Andhra Pradesh has held the Bank's structural adjustment policies responsible for the miserable plight of farmers and ordinary people in the state.'

A day ahead of the meeting of the full Planning Commission meeting, Ahluwalia had said: "There is no representation of outside bodies in the actual working of the Planning Commission," and clarified that inclusion of such representatives was only for providing inputs for the mid-term appraisal of the Tenth Plan.

After taking stock of the prevailing economic scenario, it was time to begin the process of 'reorienting' the course of country's economic system to reflect the vision and priorities of United Progressive Alliance government as outlined in the National Common Minimum Programme, Singh said.

Outlining the task and objective of the mid-term appraisal of the Tenth Plan, he said it should form the basis of economic agenda not only for the remaining years of the Plan but also the Eleventh Plan.

He noted that economy had grown only 6 per cent during the first two years of the 10th Plan against the ambitious target of 8.1 per cent and said the preparation for the mid-term appraisal would provide an opportunity to ensure that the objectives of the CMP were fully reflected in the Plan strategy.

Pointing at the 'time constraints' for the presentation of the Budget for 2004-05, the prime minister said the government had adopted the 'innovative' measure of providing a block allocation of Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) to the Commission to be reappropriated for specific projects and programmes as per the CMP objectives.

Singh regretted there had been little progress since the National Development Council, while approving the Tenth Five-Year Plan in December 2002, identified four critical areas of reforms which required to be designated and guided at the 'highest political level.'

He said for sending out a clear signal regarding resolve to carry forward reforms process, "we propose to reconstitute the four empowered sub-committees and amend some of the terms of reference in order to better reflect the CMP objectives."

The four reform areas include governance reforms with special reference to e-governance, creating an investor friendly climate, removal of barriers to internal trade and financial and administrative empowerment of Panchayti Raj institutions.

He also committed to ensuring that the deliberations of the sub-committees took place expeditiously so as to incorporate their recommendations in reforms strategy.

Signalling a revival of the committee formed by National Development Council in 1999 on transfer of centrally-sponsored schemes to the states, which has already circulated its draft report, Singh said: "It is now necessary to involve the new ministers before the report is finalised."

He said transfer of centrally-sponsored schemes was one of the major commitments of the CMP and asked the Commission members to deliberate on the draft report, on which comments of the original members of the committee had been received.