district planning in india

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District planning in India

District Planning is the process of preparing an integratedplan for the local government sector in a district takinginto account the resources (natural, human and nancial)available and covering the sectoral activities and schemesassigned to the district level and below and those imple-mented through local governments in a state.[1]

District is the most suitable administrative unit for decen-tralized planning below the state level as it possesses therequired heterogeneity and is small enough to undertakepeople in planning and implementation and to improveproductivity; district planning is an important tool.

With the 73rd and 74th amendments [2] of theConstitution of India , decentralization of planningis emphasized and the methodology of district plan waschanged. The approach suggested for the preparation ofthe district plan is as follows: .[3]

1 Steps in district planning

The sequence in the preparation of district plan can be as

follows:

Preparation of district vision, block vision and grampanchayat level vision.

Preparation of participatory plan involving GramSabha from Gram Panchayats to Zilla Parishad.

Preparation of plans by Urban Local Bodies.

Consolidation of plans prepared by local bodies byDistrict Planning Committees.

Planning starts with the preparation of vision documentsby local bodies. [4]

2 District visioning

A vision document is for 10 to 15 years is to be preparedby the district and for each local government based ona participatory assessment. The DPC may hold formalinteractions with local governments and other key stake-holders on this and then nalise it. The document shouldclearly identify the key reasons for backwardness / devel-

opment shortcomings and address issues impeding devel-opment.

District vision document will cover :- [5]

Agriculture and allied sectors.

Availability and development of water sources.

Industries especially traditional, small industriesincluding food processing.

Infrastructure including power.

Drinking water and sanitation.

Literacy, school education.

Health and medical facilities.

Poverty reduction and basic needs.

Gender and children.

Social justice SC / ST, Persons with disability etc.

To assist the DPC in preparing the vision document (andsubsequently to vet the draft plan proposals), a Techni-cal Support Group may be constituted in each district. itmay consist of departmental officers nominated for thepurpose in addition to their duties or retired persons lo-cally available or a local academic institution or estab-lished NGO with a proven record similarly, technicalsupport as appropriate, may be organized for the urbanareas, intermediate panchayats and village

If undertaken in a campaign mode, the preparation of vi-sion documents can be completed in two months time.

Further, if District is to be the economic unit for planningexercise, thescopeof vision document could be expandedto include areas of comparative advantage of each districtwhich would be the basis for attracting private investment.

3 Block vision

After nalizing the vision document for the district at thedistrict level, the document will be discussed at the blocklevel and a vision document for the block will be preparedwith some modications based on the conditions of theblock. The vision document for each block need not becompletely different because the agro-ecological condi-tions of some planning units at this level may be same,particularly when a district is divided into a large num-ber of Inter Mediate Panchayats as in the case of Andhra

Pradesh . Even though the same vision is adopted forsome blocks / mandals, it is necessary to have the visionowned by the Intermediate Panchayat. This exercise will

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andhra_Pradeshhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andhra_Pradeshhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decentralizationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Indiahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Districthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/States_of_Indiahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Districthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resources


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2 6 DISTRICT PLAN

be done by a team of experts at block level. The sameteam will be responsible for plans at the GP level. How-ever, the team will take some members like professionalsor retired persons belonging to the area to assist the teamin the preparation of the plan. The general formats forplanning at the lowest unit level viz., GP or ULB will beprepared at the district level and they will be adopted withcertain modications at the block level.

Vision of the Gram Panchayat will also be prepared ac-cordingly. The vision of the GP will be based on theSocio-economic Prole of the GP and views of the GP.

4 Plan for grama pan-chayat/municipality

At the third stage, the plan at the GP or ULB will be pre-pared. This will be prepared by the team with the helpof peoples participation. The will rst interact with theGP and prepare a vision on the lines of the district vision.Once the Gram Panchayat vision is approved, the teamwill conduct several Group Discussions to nd out the po-tentials, needs and constraints of the village economy inGram Sabha. Thefelt needs of these communities and thesupport needed for improving their livelihood conditionswill be elicited. Once this exercise is completed, it willbe discussed in the Gram Sabha. This approach will helpto study the situation thoroughly and prepare the plan. Inparticular, all the schemes CSS State sponsored schemeswill be examined thoroughly with a view to understandtheir suitability to the area. This can be more easily as-certained from the beneciaries/stake holders. The planshould also take into account the long term developmentperspective of the GP and also natural resource manage-ment (NRM) aspects.

5 Plan for block panchayats

The above three steps followed the top down approach inthe preparation of the district plan. After this GP Planis prepared and no plan is ready at higher levels exceptthe vision. The Plans at the higher levels will be pre-pared in the next steps. In this step, the GP plans willbe consolidated and put before the IP. In the GP plans,the benets of some of the schemes will go beyond theGP and such schemes may gure in the other GP plansalso. Hence, they have to be separated and duplicationhas to be avoided. Similarly, some schemes which pro-vide benets beyond the GP level may not be identied

in any GP. The Block Plan has to identify those schemes/ projects. This exercise will be done at the meetings ofthe Intermediate Panchayat level.

6 District plan

The nal stage is the preparation of the district plan. Thiswill be nalized after the Block Plans are nalized in thesame way as the Block Plan is nalized on the basis of theGP Plans in the Block. The schemes that will not gurein the Block Plans, but are essential for the developmentof the district will be identied at this stage. Further, anattempt will have to be made to achieve functional andspatial integration and use the norms for the provision ofsocial infrastructure. The above ve steps will help inthe preparation of the perspective plan. To work out theannual plans, the nancial resources available have to betaken into account. The local government component ofthe District Plan would emerge from the resource enve-lope containing the following sources of funds:

Own resources available for development

Transfers by State Finance Commission for devel-opment purposes

Twelfth Finance Commission grants passed on bythe State Government

Untied grants for local planning

Grants in respect of Centrally Sponsored Schemes.

Grants for State Plan schemes assigned for imple-

mentation through local Governments

Grants for externally supported schemes assignedfor implementation through local governments

Estimated contribution by the communities them-selves

The document that embodies this statement of resourcesand their allocation for various purposes is known as theDistrict Plan. It would essentially have three aspectsnamely.

1. Plan to be prepared by the Rural Local Bodies fortheactivities assigned to them and thenational / stateschemes implemented by them with their own re-sources and those earmarked for these purposes;

2. Plan to be prepared by the Urban Local Bodies fortheactivities assigned to them and thenational / stateschemes implemented by them with their own re-sources and those earmarked for these purposes;

3. Physical integration of the plans of Rural and Urban

Local Bodies with theelements of the State Plan thatare physically implemented within the geographicalconnes of the district.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_developmenthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Districthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_developmenthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gram_Panchayat


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7 Integration of entire local plans

In the realization of the district vision, district planswill need to put together resources channelised from allsources including district segments to the State Plan,CSSs, Special Programmes such as Employment Guar-antee, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, Rural Health Mission,Grants-in-aid for specic purposes from Finance Com-mission, Bharat Nirman etc. Therefore consolidationis a task that goes much beyond compilation and con-notes a degree of value addition through integration oflocal plans. There are several aspects of integration ofplans that have to be considered in the preparation ofthe draft development plan. The different dimensionsof integration have been discussed very succinctly in theplanning guidelines [6] for local bodies in Kerala as de-tailed below and could be adapted for general use:

Spatial integration

This would mean integration of schemes such as roadsthat run through one or more Panchayats. Such kindsof Multi Panchayat infrastructure projects could be takenup with proportionate contributions from the Panchay-ats concerned dovetailed into the funding available fromabove and entrusted to one local government for execu-tion.

Sectoral integration

This relates to the integration that takes place within asector. For instance, an integrated approach to agricul-tural development would require the integration of sev-eral schemes relating to agriculture , such as horticulture ,drip irrigation, high yielding varieties and integrated pestmanagement .

Cross-sectoral integration

To ensure maximum impact from different interven-tions, it is necessary to design approaches that draw

resources from various schemes. For instance, a goodapproach to public health would require inputs from wa-ter and sanitation allocations and health programme al-locations. Again, a typical watershed management pro-gramme would comprise soil conservation, water har-vesting , micro irrigation, bio-mass generation, sheries ,animal husbandry, agro processing and micro enterprisecomponents, all properly sequenced.

Vertical integration

This is based on theprecept that District and Intermediate

Panchayats ought to perform activities which have the ad-vantages of scale and which cannot be done by the lowertiers of local government. This will require that Block

Panchayats have a clear idea as to what the draft plansof Village Panchayats will contain, Similarly the DistrictPanchayats would need to consider the approved plans ofVillage and Block Panchayats before nalizing theirs.

Integration of resources

There are several schemes both Centrally sponsored andState sponsored which Panchayats can utilize, integrateinto local plans and to which they can contribute addi-tional resources. This would comprise two aspects, asbelow:

Integration with State Plans

There are several State Plans, which as implemented canbe strengthened by increased allocation from Panchayatfunds. In some cases a component having a complemen-tary nature could be added to the State Plan Scheme. Forinstance, the drawing of electric wires to villages couldbe complemented by the Panchayat taking up the wiringof BPL houses.

Integration of CSSs with local plans

It is important that in the interest of efficient use of re-sources, there ought to be only one development plan forthe local government prepared through a common plan-ning process and not a set of separate plans prepared inaccordance with the guidelines of each programme. Thusonce priorities and works are identied and prioritizedthrough a single planning process, components pertainingto a particular sector could be taken up through schemes,including CSSs while still keeping within the guidelinesof those schemes.

Integration with local resources

Planning can provide for local investments to be catal-ysed through local resources or initiatives. For example,village knowledge centers and Rural business Hubs couldbe catalysed by Panchayats. This is also possible by ex-tending the concept of Pura to encompass the concept ofrural business hubs. By this, we do not meant that Pan-chayats ought to run industry locally, but that it catalogslocal skills and natural resource endowments and facili-tate the development of business linkages.

Rural Urban Integration

Integration of urban-rural plans, which is particularly im-portant in the light of increasing urbanization , is an areawhere the District Planning Committee could contributea great deal. The DPC should work out mechanisms of

joint programmes to be nanced by State government in-stitutions and joint contributions by urban and rural localbodies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urbanizationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resourceshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Businesshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisherieshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_harvestinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_harvestinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resourceshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_pest_managementhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_pest_managementhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horticulturehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculturehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrastructurehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keralahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_integrationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Districthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resources


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4 11 EXTERNAL LINKS

8 Summary of district planningmethodology

In short, the district planning start with a vision and endup in an integrated plan for the district. Preparation of a

district vision is the rst signicant event in district plan-ning. On the basis of district vision document, a planwill be prepared at the Gram Sabha level. The GramPanchayat may nalise its plan based on prioritise exerg-ing from the Gram Sabha and earmarking suggestions forthe Intermediate Panchayat. Projects and activities whichcan be implemented at the Gram Panchayat level shouldbe included as Gram Panchayati Plan. Those projectsand activities which can be implemented only in morethan one Gram Panchayat, will be forwarded to the In-termediate Panchayats to be considered for inclusion intothe Intermediate Panchayat Plan. The Gram Panchayatplans should also provide an estimate of the communitycontribution that can be mobilized for the purpose of im-plementing the development plan.

Based on these suggestions received from Gram Pan-chayats and its own priorities the Intermediate Panchayatshould nalise its plan. Projects and activities, whichcan be implemented at the Intermediate Panchayat leveshould be included as Intermediate Panchayat Plan.Those projects and activities which need to be imple-mented in more than one intermediate panchayat will beforwarded to the District Panchayat to be considered forinclusion into the District Panchayat Plan.

Based on the Gram Panchayat Plans, the intermediatePanchayat Plans and District Panchayat Plans, the Dis-trict Planning Committee shall nalise the District Planfor the district and will form part of the State plan. [7]

9 See also

District Planning in Kerala

District Planning Committees in India

10 References

[1] For a detailed understanding of the concept of districtplanning see District Planning Lessons from India, Rome,FAO,1995

[2] See 74th Constitutional amendment act 1994


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