The panel criticised the Department of Space (DoS), which comes directly under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, for "casually fixing schedules" for important programmes like the Manned Mission Initiative scheduled to take an Indian astronaut to outer space in 2014.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, chaired by Congress leader T Subbarami Reddy, noted with concern that a programme initiated in 2006 and having target date of 2014, is yet to get a final approval even for its Phase-I programme.
It said the department was either not serious in timely completion of the project or had casually fixed a schedule for completion of the mission.
"It also reflects a lack of proper planning and effective monitoring, as also absence of adequate research and technological support for timely execution of the project," the Committee said.
The panel hoped that the pre-project activities would be expeditiously completed and approval for Phase-I of the programme obtained, so that the project is completed as per schedule in 2014. MORE
