Towards the end of Nehru’s term as prime minister, even Nehru’s trusted colleague and admirer, S.K. Dey, had become critical of the undue expansion of the Planning Commission. Dey has noted: All government organisations, it is well known, tend to expand with time. The Planning Commission having started from the southern wing and part of northern wing of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, was expected to accommodate itself originally on a floor area of about 25,000 sq. ft. in a special building to be constructed for them. But it expanded at such a fantastic pace that the Commission gave itself a new
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