Days before his exit from the Planning Commission , deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia approved up to 25% salary hike for consultants and young professionals working at the commission. Ahluwalia also agreed to a proposal to raise the cap on their numbers and centralising the entire process of hiring.The fresh guidelines, issued by the commission last week, were signed off by Ahulwalia on May 22, five days after he had submitted his resignation to then prime minister Manmohan Singh.These guidelines will supersede the ones issued in November 2009 and would prevail for engagement of consultants and young professionals, or YPs as they are commonly called.According to the new guidelines, the salary of consultants has been revised upwards by 25% to now range between.Rs 50,000-80,000 against Rs40,000-70,000 earlier while that of YPs has been enhanced by 20% to Rs 30,000-50,000 compared with Rs 25,000-40,000 earlier.The new guidelines have also increased the number of these professional in the commission in a year to 75 from 60. “The total number of consultants to be engaged in various divisions of the commission shall not exceed 15 at any given time while the total number of YPs shall be capped at 60,” a senior official told ET.The third significant change for roping in these professionals into the commission is that, henceforth, hiring will take place only twice a year and the process will be routed through the commission’s administrative divisionAccording to the earlier guidelines, YPs and consultants could be hired throughout the year and the hiring was done by the respective divisions of the commission.Ahulwalia, who had started his career as a YP in the World Bank in 1968, had introduced the concept in the Planning Commission in 2009.“Bringing young people into the work of the commission , or any organisation for that matter, is beneficial because they bring a fresh perspective to the job and also enthusiasm, which only the young can show,” Ahluwalia had earlier told ET.