District Planning in Kerala - Subsequent Experiments

Subsequent Experiments

In order to experiment a pilot exercise in district planning, two districts - Kottayam among the developed and Kannur among the backward – were selected. DDCs were entrusted with the overall responsibility of drawing up district plans. A small executive committee was constituted with District Collector as the chairperson, Chairperson of DDC as the member-secretary, and selected district officers as members to assist the DDC in drawing up the plan. Blocks were proposed as the primary units for the district planning exercise. Block Planning Committees (BPCs) were constituted with one of the district level officers of the development departments as chairperson and BDO as member-secretary. The role of District Planning Officer was to help the DDC in preparing the block-level inventory of resources & infrastructure and to make a report on the prospects of development. The BPCs had to assess the felt needs of the different Panchayats through discussion and dialogue with representatives of local people. Since the elections to the Panchayats were not held, they were not associated with this district planning exercise. The procedures for enhancing people’s participation and details of development analysis to be made were determined by the concerned DDC.

The Planning Commission of India later modified the earlier guideline stating that the financial assistance for the exercise could be made only if the study would be entrusted to private consultancy organizations. Accordingly, the above modality was abandoned and the Institute of Management in Government (IMG) and Kerala Statistical Institute (KSI) were entrusted with the responsibility of drawing up district plans, respectively for the districts of Kannur and Kottayam. The exercise was, however, kept outside the purview of planning in the State or in the districts in the matter of Five-Year Plan and Annual Plan formulation and was undertaken only as an experimental 'model' in the district planning.

Kottayam District Plan

The KSI started working on the district plan of Kottayam district from December 1988, with focus on land use planning. The resource inventory was prepared based on secondary data. The exercise focused on the preparation of schemes from below in consonance with the felt needs of the people in different localities. As there were no elected bodies at the block and the district levels, meetings of the BPCs consisting of elected MLAs, Panchayat Presidents, officials, other non-officials and Municipal Councilors, were convened regularly. The committees were expected to put forth development proposals considering the overall development needs, potentials and the felt needs of the people in the region.

During that time, the official preparations for district level plans, as part of the Eighth Plan of the State started in the districts. The outlay for Kottayam district in the Eighth plan was Rs. 90 crore. KSI decided to make use of the list of schemes which was being prepared for the government. It invited proposals from the Panchayats based on the list and dovetailed the output to suit an estimated financial outlay of Rs. 100 crore for the public sector as calculated by them. Discussions were held in the BDCs. The panchayat presidents were entrusted with holding discussions in the Panchayats before making suggestions regarding the schemes. The block level discussions were over by January 1989 in all the 11 blocks of the district. By February, meetings were also held in the municipalities. Approximately 700 persons attended those meetings held throughout the district. By July 1989, around 40 Panchayats had submitted their proposals in the prescribed formats and in total 73 Panchayats submitted their projects by the end.

Simultaneously, main problems and priorities of the Panchayats, particularly with reference to infrastructure facilities, were collected from the Panchayat Presidents with the help of a questionnaire. KSI also undertook a sample household survey to understand the felt needs of the people, to supplement this input. Four Panchayats and one Municipality were chosen for the sample survey from among the 73 Panchayats and the four Municipalities. The schemes collected from the Panchayats and the blocks, with the data supplemented from Krishi Bhavans, Panchayats and household survey, formed the basis of the district plan report. Some of the proposals were of good quality, whereas some others were the 'usual type' consisting of construction of roads and bridges. KSI dovetailed them within the fixed total outlay of Rs.100 crore and prepared the final district plan.

The district plan was not exactly a compendium of finally selected projects; rather it was an account of the understanding of the consultants regarding the felt needs of the people as expressed by different actors involved in the planning process and the consultants' assessment of the resource endowment of the district.

The proposals from below sought to have a lower allocation for agriculture while proposing higher outlays for the allied agricultural sectors such as animal husbandry, dairy, and fisheries in contrast with the actual district sector outlays of the State plan. The allocation demanded for rural development, which perhaps covered anti-poverty and employment generation schemes, was also much higher than the actual allocations. The substantially lower allocation proposed from below on roads was surprising. On the other hand, housing figured prominently in the KSI plan than the actual allocation available for the district. At the same time, the allocation for SC/ST welfare was much lesser than half of the actual allotment.

The conclusion of the exercise was not very encouraging. It underlined that in the task of identification of schemes and projects of local significance and in presentation of them with adequate details such as importance, costs and benefits, the general public can make very little contribution. The people's participation at the panchayat level was very limited.

Kannur District Plan

The Kannur District Plan was more a methodological exercise than an operational one. It was submitted on December 1992, almost two years after the Kottayam Plan when the first elected District Councils of Kerala had assumed power. The purpose of the plan was to refine the procedural aspects in district planning.

The first step in the planning was to make an analysis of situation, which included preparation of district profile, resource inventory through secondary data collection and mapping techniques, and also through primary survey whenever needed, especially using RRA techniques.

The second step in the planning process was to have a sectoral and spatial analysis of the district, which included identification of watershed, geo-climatic typologies, spatial profile of poverty and unemployment, sectoral review of potentials, etc.

In the third step, formulation of objectives and strategies based on the situation analysis made earlier was done. The plan reflected the felt needs of the Panchayats / Non Governmental Organisations and contained the long-term and short-term objectives, as well as sectoral strategies.

Preparation of development programmes and development projects for inclusion in district plan was the fourth step. A quantitative and spatial schematic plan was drawn up based on a development dialogue with the District Council regarding the financial resource position and development priorities. But this had never happened at all. The experiment met with a premature death.

District plans in 2000

In the third year of the much acclaimed Peoples Planning in Kerala, an attempt was made to draw up the district plan for each district in order to complete the cycle of decentralized planning. The basic objectives of the above said district planning experiment was threefold. % to make an assessment of the district, its resources and to provide a macro perspective for district development % to consolidate local government plans % to formulate guidelines for local planning for subsequent years Based on those objectives, district plans were drawn up in the districts with the following three parts or sections.

• Perspective for district development
• Consolidated plans of the local governments
• Guidelines for future

The Part I of the district plan was proposed to be prepared once in five years at the beginning of the five-year plan. Part II and Part III of the district plan were expected to be prepared every year.

The district plan for each of the 14 districts in Kerala was prepared in the year 2000. The integration of local plans revealed the duplications, gaps and contradictions in the people's planning. As well, it provided guidelines for the preparation of the next years annual plans in the district.

The exercise indicated that district plan, in the absence of clear objectives, proper methodology and meticulous preparation can degenerate itself into a bundle of statistics and schemes, without any coherence, direction and integration. So the district planners should have a through knowledge of the objectives of the state and national planning and should customize the district plan in tune with the objectives of the higher level plans while balancing with the projects arising from below.