K. C. Pant
| Krishna Chandra Pant | |
|---|---|
 K.C. Pant, Defence Minister being received by the Three Services Chiefs- Army, Navy, Airforce | |
| 18th Minister of Defence (India) | |
|
In office 1987–1989 | |
| 23rd Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission of India[1] | |
|
In office 1999–2004 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
10 August 1931 Bhowali in Nainital District. |
| Died |
15 November 2012 (aged 81) Delhi |
| Political party | Indian National Congress & Bhartiya Janata Party |
| Spouse(s) | Ila Pant |
| Children | Ranjan & Sunil |
Krishna Chandra Pant (10 August 1931 - 15 November 2012) was Member of Parliament for 26 years and was the Prime Minister's interlocutor on Kashmir. He was a cabinet minister in the Government of India and held several constitutional positions over a period of 37 years. Pant had held the positions of Minister for Defence, Finance, Steel and Heavy Engineering, Home Affairs, Electronics, Atomic Energy and Science and Technology. He was the First Chairman of the Advisory Board on Energy, Chairman of the 10th Finance Commission and the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission of India, the economic planning body of India; his Vision 2020 document was published as India's Development Scenario, Next Decade and Beyond.
Early life & Family
Krishna Chandra Pant (K.C. Pant), informally known as “Raja” was born to the freedom fighter Govind Ballabh Pant[2] (who along with Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru was a key figure in the fight for Indian independence) and Smt. Kalawati Pant on the 10th of August, 1931 in Bhowali - Kumaon region of the Himalayas, United Provinces (now Uttarakhand). His early years were spent in Nainital and his schooling was in St. Joseph’s College, Nainital. He not only excelled in studies but also in swimming, boxing and cricket. He moved to Lucknow, post-independence when his father was appointed the Chief Minister of the State of Uttar Pradesh. He completed his post-graduation from Lucknow University and went to Germany for further studies.
In 1957, he married Ila Pant in Nainital.
Minister of Home Affairs (1971-1973)
In the early 70s, after winning the Lok Sabha from Nainital he took over his first Ministerial posting as the Minister of Home Affairs, and resolved three very critical issues of the time. First, he negotiated to maintain Andhra-Telangana as a single State. Secondly he played a crucial role to resettle the influx of refugees from the Bangladesh into West Bengal and, thirdly, he helped the North East States where there was a churning because Meghalaya was given full statehood.
Minister of Space and Technology
During 1971, Pant concurrently held the portfolio for Ministry of Space and Technology which then built India’s 1st indigenously made satellite and launched Aryabhata, the 1st satellite to be put in orbit around earth.
Minister of Irrigation and Power
Pant was the Minister of Irrigation and Power from 1973 – 75. The Bhakra Nangal Dam was built in 1963. He ensured that the power generation capacity was enhanced. He spearheaded the plan to build a power plant linked to Nagarjuna Sagar Dam in the year 1972.
Pant, in association with the Central Water and Power Research station, launched a centrally sponsored Command Area Development (CAD) programme during his tenure, wherein 60 major and medium irrigation projects were taken up under the CAD Programme, covering a Culturable Command Area (CCA) of about 15 million hectare. Also, he inaugurated The International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD) as the Minister for Energy, on 29 October 1979 at New Delhi.
Minister of Atomic Energy
Pant took over as the Minister for Atomic Energy, assisting the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, from November, 1973, to October, 1974. It was during his tenure that Pokharan–I was tested.
Minister of Energy
Pant was the Minister For Energy. His major contributions were in the following projects: Farakka Thermal Power Plant, Kalpakkam Power Plant, Setting up of Asian Grid System, Improving the condition of NTPC and NHPC plants, Modernization of Coal Mining Companies, Boosting of Solar Energy Generation and laying the foundation of Durgapur Power Plant. To ensure that the North Eastern region not be neglected he built a separate corporation exclusively for the region called NEEPCO.
Minister of Education
Pant was appointed as the Minister for Education in 1985. During his tenure he came up with some major campaigns like Education for the Blind, Mass Literacy Campaign, Delinking jobs from degrees, Education for all initiative, Model School for all the districts and some major job oriented programmes. He also presented and passed the proposal for setting up an open university that would provide higher education to everyone. It was named Indira Gandhi National Open University – IGNOU.
Minister of Steel and Mines
Pant was the Minister for Steel and Mines during the period of 1985-86. During that period there was a sharp downfall in the supply of steel in India. Therefore, he came up with the solution of Modernization and Expansion of Steel Plants. He went through with the modernization of Bokaro and Bhilai steel plants and the renovation of the Durgapur Plant. Also, he introduced the self-sufficiency policy in this sector and implemented it in Rourkela and Visakhapatnam Steel Plants. He boosted the Aluminium Production with the NALCO project.
Apart from a new steel policy K.C Pant ensured that a consumer Council was setup to facilitate consumers on latest trends in both the global and local markets. The Consumer Council bridged the gap between the consumer and the government.
Minister of Defence
Pant was Minister for Defence for the years 1987-89. The major initiatives taken by him were Modernisation of Defence equipment and services upgrading and making it self –sufficient, improving the foreign ties with Russia, US and other countries. He also played a major role in the Agni and Prithvi missile programmes.
Positions held
Notwithstanding his Ministerial stints, Pant held diverse and prominent Constitutional positions:
Chairman of the 10th Finance Commission (1992 – 95)
Pant was appointed as the Chairman of the 10th Finance Commission by the then Prime Minister Narsimha Rao. He was responsible for giving recommendations for the distributions of the net proceeds of taxes between the Union and the States and also on the norms related to the grants-in-aid allotted to the states to raise their income in addition to other activities like suggesting changes with respect to the net proceeds in terms of additional excise duties etc.
Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission (1998-2004)
The Planning Commission was headed by the then Prime Minister, A.B Vajpayee and K.C Pant was appointed as the Deputy Chairman. He, along with his committee members, focused on agricultural development to achieve the goal of Hunger Free India. To ensure food security, he implemented strategies to double the food production, increase the employment and income in the agricultural sector, improved the rural infrastructure through poverty alleviation schemes and started distributing free food grains to the people below the poverty line.
During his tenure, he concentrated on the other sectors too. In the education sector, investment was made in the PM’s Special Action Plan for the expansion and improvement of social infrastructure in education. Then, measures were adopted to increase the employment in the country. Measures were taken to improve the health of the industrial, railway and telecommunication sectors. On 1 January 2014 Pant as a Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission in his official statement confirmed that India's GDP growth was at 8%.
Vice Chairman of the National Commission on Population (1999)
Under Pant's tenure, the National Population Policy with the objective of Population Control, was constituted on 11 April 2000.
Chairman Task Force for establishing the National Security Council (1998)
Pant was responsible for heading the Long term strategic planning and formulation of strategy of national security, for the co-ordination of current decision making and follow-up of policy implementation and for co-ordinated intelligence assessment for national security planning and management.
Pant's Vision 2020 document was published when he was Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission.
Death
Krishna Chandra Pant died on 15 November 2012 following a heart attack at the age of 81.[3][4] He left behind his wife Ila Pant and two sons.
See also
References
- ↑ "List of Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission of India" (PDF). Planning Commission of India.
- ↑ "An old school politician: Krishna Chandra Pant". The Economic Times. The Times Group. 15 November 2012. Retrieved 13 February 2016.
- ↑ "Former Defence Minister KC Pant dead". NDTV.com. 15 November 2012. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
- ↑ "Former defence minister K.C. Pant passes away; PM and Antony offer condolences". India Today. 15 November 2012.
External links
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by V. P. Singh |
Minister of Defence 1987–1989 |
Succeeded by Chandra Shekhar Singh |
|