Consider the following statements : 1. National Development Council is an organ of the Planning Commission. 2. The Economic and Social Planning is kept in the Concurrent List in the Constitution List in the Constitution of India. 3. The Constitution of India prescribes that Panchayats should be assigned the task of preparation of place for economic development and social justice. Which of the statements given above is / are correct?

The correct answer is B, that is statements 2 and 3 only.

• Statement 1 is wrong. The National Development Council was set up by a government resolution in 1952 and is chaired by the Prime Minister. It is not an organ of the Planning Commission. The relationship is the other way round in the sense that the NDC was created to associate state governments with planning. Note that the Planning Commission has since been replaced by NITI Aayog (2015).
• Statement 2 is correct. Economic and social planning is Entry 20 of the Concurrent List, inserted by the 42nd Amendment (1976). Both Centre and states can legislate on it.
• Statement 3 is correct. Article 243G, inserted by the 73rd Amendment, empowers Panchayats to prepare plans for economic development and social justice. The subjects are listed in the Eleventh Schedule.

The core concept here is the constitutional architecture of planning, which spans the Union and States through the Concurrent List and extends down to local bodies through Part IX. For Mains GS-II, this links to the debate on cooperative federalism and the decentralised planning mandate after the 73rd and 74th Amendments.

Trap: Candidates often accept statement 1 because the NDC and the Planning Commission are closely associated. Remember that the NDC is a body above the planning machinery, not a part of it.