District Planning in India - Integration of Entire Local Plans

Integration of Entire Local Plans

In the realization of the district vision, district plans will need to put together resources channelised from all sources including district segments to the State Plan, CSSs, Special Programmes such as Employment Guarantee, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, Rural Health Mission, Grants-in-aid for specific purposes from Finance Commission, Bharat Nirman etc. Therefore consolidation is a task that goes much beyond compilation and connotes a degree of value addition through integration of local plans. There are several aspects of integration of plans that have to be considered in the preparation of the draft development plan. The different dimensions of integration have been discussed very succinctly in the planning guidelines for local bodies in Kerala as detailed below and could be adapted for general use:

• Spatial integration

This would mean integration of schemes such as roads that run through one or more Panchayats. Such kinds of Multi Panchayat infrastructure projects could be taken up with proportionate contributions from the Panchayats concerned dovetailed into the funding available from above and entrusted to one local government for execution.

• Sectoral integration

This relates to the integration that takes place within a sector. For instance, an integrated approach to agricultural development would require the integration of several schemes relating to agriculture, such as horticulture, drip irrigation, high yielding varieties and integrated pest management.

• Cross-sectoral integration

To ensure maximum impact from different interventions, it is necessary to design approaches that draw resources from various schemes. For instance, a good approach to public health would require inputs from water and sanitation allocations and health programme allocations. Again, a typical watershed management programme would comprise soil conservation, water harvesting, micro irrigation, bio-mass generation, fisheries, animal husbandry, agro processing and micro enterprise components, all properly sequenced.

• Vertical integration

This is based on the precept that District and Intermediate Panchayats ought to perform activities which have the advantages of scale and which cannot be done by the lower tiers of local government. This will require that Block Panchayats have a clear idea as to what the draft plans of Village Panchayats will contain, Similarly the District Panchayats would need to consider the approved plans of Village and Block Panchayats before finalizing theirs.

• Integration of resources

There are several schemes both Centrally sponsored and State sponsored which Panchayats can utilize, integrate into local plans and to which they can contribute additional resources. This would comprise two aspects, as below:

• Integration with State Plans

There are several State Plans, which as implemented can be strengthened by increased allocation from Panchayat funds. In some cases a component having a complementary nature could be added to the State Plan Scheme. For instance, the drawing of electric wires to villages could be complemented by the Panchayat taking up the wiring of BPL houses.

• Integration of CSSs with local plans

It is important that in the interest of efficient use of resources, there ought to be only one development plan for the local government prepared through a common planning process and not a set of separate plans prepared in accordance with the guidelines of each programme. Thus once priorities and works are identified and prioritized through a single planning process, components pertaining to a particular sector could be taken up through schemes, including CSSs while still keeping within the guidelines of those schemes.

• Integration with local resources

Planning can provide for local investments to be catalysed through local resources or initiatives. For example, village knowledge centers and Rural business Hubs could be catalysed by Panchayats. This is also possible by extending the concept of Pura to encompass the concept of rural business hubs. By this, we do not meant that Panchayats ought to run industry locally, but that it catalogs local skills and natural resource endowments and facilitate the development of business linkages.

• Rural Urban Integration

Integration of urban-rural plans, which is particularly important in the light of increasing urbanization, is an area where the District Planning Committee could contribute a great deal. The DPC should work out mechanisms of joint programmes to be financed by State government institutions and joint contributions by urban and rural local bodies.