Chief Secretary Ramesh Inder Singh today constituted a joint committee, headed by the Secretary, Planning Satish Chandra, for effective monitoring of Centrally-sponsored schemes. The committee will have a senior official of the Finance Department and an official of the department concerned. This was decided in a meeting held today. The Indian Express had highlighted the differences between the Finance and the Planning departments over monitoring of the schemes in these columns yesterday. The Chief Secretary will review the status of Central schemes next month. During the meeting, the CS laid emphasis on getting maximum out of Central schemes for the development of the state. Secretary, Finance, D S Kalha, who has been unwell for the last few days, could not attend the meeting. The Planning Department will be the nodal agency for monitoring these projects. Early this month, an extensive exercise was carried out by Chandra on how to best implement Centrally-sponsored schemes in Punjab. CM Parkash Singh Badal has more than once asserted the need to get most out of these schemes.