Thanks Anand, but i would not have asked about a specific bit in the configuration registers for PIC 18F47J53 if i were copy pasting a program. Somehow, the debug mode works now. My main question was, in this controller's datasheet, at the CONFIG1L register - the 7th bit is the DEBUG bit. But the code is not accepting the pragma configuration definition for the keyword DEBUG. It has been the basic keyword for the debug mode for most of the PIC controllers and i could not find the bit in the MPLAB IDE compiler configuration bit settings even by selecting this device.