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BPSC Mains GS-2 Masterclass · Indian Economy

Decentralised & District PlanningPlanning from the Bottom Up

Plans made in Delhi cannot see every village. Decentralised planning starts at the gram sabha and builds upward through the block and the district. This page explains the idea, the constitutional machinery, a blueprint for integrated planning, what district planning needs to succeed, and why it has fallen short.

Constitution243ZDArticle

creates the District Planning Committee.

DPC4/5thElected members

of a DPC are chosen by local elected members.

Funds44% vs 5%Own revenue

Urban vs rural local governments (ES 2017-18).

Structure3 tiersPanchayati Raj

Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti, Zila Parishad.

Reform2015NITI Aayog

aims at a bottom-up approach to planning.

Record12States

reported integrated district plans (Devolution Report 2015).

Part 1 · Definitions

Decentralised Planning and District Planning

Two related ideas: planning that starts at the lowest unit of government, and planning for the district as the middle unit.

A gram sabha meeting under a tree with villagers marking needs on a large hand-drawn village map

Decentralised planning

Decentralized planning is an approach of planning where development plans are prepared at lowest unit of governance and administration and then aggregated upwards at the higher level of governance. It is also known as bottom up planning.

The main objective here is to facilitate people's participation and meeting the felt needs of all sections and all regions of a country with vast variations in terms of socio economic conditions and wider cultural diversity.

Since the inception of First Plan, the importance of decentralised planning was emphasised in order to achieve active people's participation in the planning process. However, this approach received further boost after 73rd and 74th amendment act.

District planning

District planning is a kind of area based sub-state planning and arises from the need to supplement the national and state plans with a more detailed examination of the resources, problems and potentials of local areas (i.e. districts), so that investment programmes, more specifically tailored to the particular needs of each district, could be evolved and implemented. It assumes that the district is a sub-state decision-making unit within the system of multi-level planning.

Requirement of district planning arises from the need to supplement the national and state plans with a more detailed examination of the potentials at the mid-unit of administration, i.e. the district. Such planning would help in making investment decision geared to the needs of each district. District planning, therefore, would involve striking a balance amongst specific needs of the people of the district, growth potentials of the area and budgetary allocations available.

District planning cannot be viewed in isolation from either the state plan, or the block level plan. Essentially, district planning should be a creative response to a particular set of prevailing circumstances in the State.

Example: Top-down: Patna decides every village needs a new community hall. Bottom-up: one village's gram sabha says its real need is a culvert over the canal, another wants a girls' toilet in the school. The district plan adds these up, so money goes where the felt needs are.

Part 2 · Strengthening the Panchayat system

Why Decentralised Planning Is the Focus Today

Decentralized planning through the strengthening of the Panchayat system is the focus of planning in India in recent times.

The constitutional mandate

73rd and 74th amendment act constitutionally mandated the decentralised planning from the lowest unit of governance and administration.
- The preparation of plans for economic development and social justice is among the power and function of the local Panchayats and municipal bodies.
- It created District Planning Committee (Art 243 ZD) at the district level to consolidate the plans prepared by panchayats and municipalities in the district and to prepare the draft development plan for the district as a whole. These committees have 4/5th of total members elected by the elected members of the district Panchayats and municipalities in the district among themselves.
- Metropolitan Planning committees: Every metropolitan area shall have a metropolitan planning committee to prepare draft development plan.

Experts and commissions

According to Hanumantha Rao, decentralization through the involvement of local level representatives institutions in the formulation of planning for development as well as their implementation is being advocated in the interest of efficient utilization of resources and for ensuring more equitable sharing of benefits from development.
2nd ARC also recommended to strengthen the local governance for decentralised planning:
- DPCs should be constituted in all States within three months of completion of elections to local bodies and should become the sole planning body for the district. The DPC should be assisted by a planning office with a full-time District Planning Officer.
- For urban districts where town planning functions are being done by Development Authorities, these authorities should become the technical/planning arms of the DPCs and ultimately of the District Council.

Recent moves

The NITI Aayog, formed in 2015, aims to follow Bottom-up approach in contrast to top-down approach of Planning commission.
- It envisages to develop mechanism to formulate credible plans at the village level and aggregate these progressively at higher levels of government.
The Inter-State Council and the standing committee of the Inter-State Council have been reconstituted to facilitate decentralized decision making.
Recently, Union Cabinet has approved to expand the Scheduled Areas under Schedule V of the Constitution of India in some areas of Rajasthan. This is in line with the decentralisation of power.

Why it matters

These types of plans raise the involvement of the people in implementing the plan. Moreover, decentralised planning is being prepared in the light of local problems and on the basis of local resources potential. Thus under the present economic scenario, the decentralised planning is considered as most important strategy in respect of planning for economic development.
Benefits from this approach of planning includes: meeting spatial level specific requirements and needs of the people, efficient utilisation of resources, cost effective solutions to the local issues, more public participation, sense of ownership in the local projects etc.
Example: When villagers themselves choose and supervise a pond under MGNREGA, they are more likely to keep it desilted and stop encroachment: that is the 'sense of ownership'.

Part 3 · An integrated regional development plan

A Blueprint for Integrated Regional Development

What an integrated regional development plan is, and how it can be built up from the gram sabha to the region.

Integrated regional development plan

The integrated regional development plan deals with allocation and utilisation of resources for the development of multiple sectors and disciplines in a region. In contrast to traditional sectoral planning, multisectoral development is the essence of IRDP. It involves the conflict management amongst multiple sectors.
Example: A new irrigation canal (agriculture) may flood a forest (environment) and displace a village (social); an integrated plan weighs all three together instead of letting each department plan alone.
It is a plan for an area that gives an overall framework for development. It aims to co-ordinate the work of local and other spheres of government in a coherent plan to improve the quality of life for all the people living in an area.
It takes into account the existing conditions and problems and resources available for development. It looks at economic and social development for the area as a whole.

The blueprint, level by level

1 · Gram sabha

The regional planning should start at the Gram sabha level. The views of the different communities should be heard. Mapping of resources available in the village. Listing and prioritising the projects in different areas (education, agricultural, health, cultural activities etc). Local experts and NGOs can provide valuable input during discussion and planning at Village level. Finally, plan for different subjects of developments can be formulated at village level. And it should be forwarded to the higher level i.e. Block level.

2 · Block

At block level, the members of intermediate Panchayats will consolidate the plans forwarded by different villages. They can further make valuable additions in the plans. The civil societies, NGOs and experts can provide the assistance.

3 · District

Again, at district level, the district planning committee will consolidate the plans received from the blocks. After making appropriate additions depending on the resource availability and priorities it will formulate a district level plan.

4 · State and region

Similar exercise can be undertaken at state and regional level. In case of any confusion related to any plan formulated at local level or while making any significant change in the forwarded plans from the local level, there should be communication and discussion between the higher and local level institution. Each institution should hear each other's concerns and should focus on resolving the development issues.

Part 4 · Steps and conditions of success

District Planning: Steps and Conditions for Success

How a district plan is prepared, and what it needs to succeed: flexibility, integration, sound economics, a social purpose and a capable machinery.

Steps in district planning

The sequence in the preparation of district plan can be as follows.

Preparation of district vision, block vision and gram panchayat level vision.
Preparation of participatory plan involving Gram Sabha from Gram Panchayats to Zilla Parishad.
Preparation of plans by Urban Local Bodies.
Consolidation of plans prepared by local bodies by District Planning Committees.

District planning should have enough flexibility, so that adjustments and modifications can be introduced within the conceptual framework of the district plan.
The district is only a sub-system of multi-level planning and, so, vertical integration is important.
District planning needs to consider three aspects:
- regional affinities in tune with natural geographical regions covering more than one district,
- recognition of sub-regional elements within a district,
- building up of capability, authority and skills at local institutions.
Example: The Kosi flood plain spreads over Supaul, Saharsa and Madhepura: flood planning makes sense for the whole region, not one district at a time.
District planning should keep the national and state objectives in view. The action plan and vision document can provide the guiding light while planning in each district, i.e. the district planning also needs to have similar objectives, so that it is consistent with planning at higher levels.
The district plan needs to identify and correct imbalances in infrastructural facilities in the district as a whole or in any part of it.
It needs also to consider the elements of sub-regionalisation, based on feature like cropping pattern.

Issues with district planning in India

Problem in getting the district level schemes fully reflected in the State plans and difficulties in the integration of District Plan into the overall State plan.
Limited scope for new schemes in the District Plan, as the outlays are largely used up for on-going schemes.
Conflict of authority and control between the District Chief and the heads of Departments at State level.
Weak data base on certain aspects (e.g. employment, income distribution).
Delays in the sanction of schemes.
District planning in India has not been very systematic.

Part 5 · A critical examination

Decentralised Planning After the 73rd and 74th Amendments

The machinery now exists on paper, and some states have shown the way. But the overall performance of decentralised planning is not at all commensurate with its expectations.

The scenario

After 73rd and 74th Amendment, it is a constitutional mandate to prepare plan below from the lowest unit of governance and administration namely Gram Panchayat or Town Panchayat and District Planning Committee.
The institutions at the grassroots are created with a provision to include women and the other deprived sections. Thus the plan has to be prepared from the lowest unit of governance to highest level.
In India, the process of decentralized planning and its performance is depending upon the activities of Panchayati Raj Institutions established at the district, block and village levels. At the district level there are Zila Parishads or Councils, at the block level there are Panchayat Samitis and at the village level a number of Gram Panchayats are working for the implementation of various plan projects.
In India, under decentralised planning, plans are formulated at the grass root level with the help of elected representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions, state administration at the district and block levels and financial institutions. In order to have a successful decentralised planning, the planning machinery in the country must be suitably developed both at the district, sub-division and block level.
In India, various states like Maharashtra, West Bengal, Assam, Karnataka, Jammu and Kashmir etc. have already adopted decentralised planning seriously. But there are large deviation in respect of adoption of decentralised planning among the various states of the country.
- While the bigger states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan could not achieve much success in respect of decentralised planning.
Some states like Kerala, West Bengal and Karnataka in respect of decentralised planning are providing useful lessons to other states of the country.
Example: Kerala's People's Plan Campaign (1996) handed about a third of the state's plan funds to local bodies, with gram sabhas choosing the projects.
But the overall performance of decentralised planning in India is not at all commensurate to its expectations.

Superficial administrative and fiscal decentralization of powers: Major power still remains with the State Governments.
Unscientific distribution of functions between different tiers: There is very little actual devolution of functions and authorities by the States to PRIs. The roles and responsibilities of local governments remain ill-defined despite activity mapping in several States.
One of the envisaged goals of the NITI Aayog was to develop mechanisms to formulate credible plans at the village level and aggregate these progressively at the higher level. Very little of this cherished goal has indeed been accomplished.

Revenue from own sources (ES 2017-18)

Urban local govts44%
Rural local govts5%

Own revenue as share of per capita income

Urban3%
Rural0.1%

The neglected District Planning Committee

With the 73rd and 74th amendments of the Constitution of India, decentralization of planning is emphasized and the methodology of district plan was changed. However, the District Planning Committee (DPC), a constitutional institution mandated "to prepare a draft development plan for the district as a whole" with a focus on resource endowments, environmental conservation, infrastructural development and spatial planning, (Article 243ZD) seems to have been neglected.
The Devolution Report 2015 published by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj says that several States have not constituted DPCs, leave alone preparing an integrated district plan. Although 12 States reported that they had formulated integrated district development plans, most of them may not stand professional scrutiny, and citizens' approval.
The sixth report (2007) of the Second Administrative Reform Commission outlines in great detail ways to make the DPC a viable component in the process of decentralised planning.
The NITI Aayog also proposes "to develop mechanisms to formulate credible plans at the village level and aggregate these progressively at higher levels of government".

Conclusion on decentralised planning

To conclude, the decentralised planning is still in its nascent stage in India. Though some states like Kerala has made good progress in this direction most of the states are lagging behind. Going forward, the deficiencies of local institutions will have to be fixed and there is need to follow the principle of subsidiarity.

Conclusion on district planning

So, there is need to revive district-level planning. For a country as wide and diverse as India, every district has to formulate its model of district development outlining its short-, medium- and long-term perspectives.

“Every district has to formulate its model of district development outlining its short-, medium- and long-term perspectives.”

— BPSC Mains answer, 1995

Curated for BPSC, UPSC & State PCS Civil Services Aspirants | Indian Economy Master Module

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