First Independent Review Mission for Backward Regions Grant Fund State Report



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3.1 District Planning Committees

The 73rd and 74th amendment of the constitution made it compulsory to constitute the District Planning Committees in the States together with the constitution of three-tier Panchayat system and constitution of Urban Local Bodies. Under Article 243ZD of the constitution, the district Planning Committees have a mandatory function of formulation of district plans, monitoring and formulation at district level. Madhya Pradesh has been pioneer in constituting District Planning Committees. Accordingly, Madhya Pradesh enacted the District Planning Committee Act 1995. All the 48 districts have duly constituted DPCs and with duly elected representatives. The District Planning Committees are headed by the Minister in-charge of the District as Chairman with elected members from the Panchayat and Urban Local Bodies as members. The elected Members of National Parliament (MPs) and Members of State Legislature (MLAs) are permanent special invitees. The function of the District Planning Committee is to prepare a consolidated district development plan for the entire district.


In 2001-02, the decentralised planning process was introduced in Madhya Pradesh and distribution of state budget into district budget was introduced so that the resources are available for different schemes of various departments in the district. The District Rural Development Agencies (DRDAs) continue to exist as separate and distinct bodies with President of the Zila Parishad as Chairperson. Funds pertaining to many rural development programmes are channelised through DRDAs.
The DPC approved Five year District Perspective Plans 2007-12 incorporating the plans of Zila Panchayat, Janpad Panchayat, Gram Panchayat and ULBs were consolidated and forwarded with or without modifications for further approval by the High Power Committee as required under the BRGF guidelines, see below.
District Plan Approvals

Table 11: District Plan Approval






Date

Districts

1

5 September 2007

Khargaon, Satna

2

4 October 2007

Balaghat, Barwani, Betul, Chatterpur, Damoh, Dindori, Guna, Jhabua, Katni, Khandwa, Mandala, Panna, Rajgarh, Rewa, Seoni, Shahdol, Sheopur, Sidhi, Tikamgarh, Umaria,

3

23 November 2007

Dhar, Shivpuri


Planning Issues
BRGF guidelines call for a benchmarking study to help later evaluation and also development of a ‘well conceived participatory perspective plan for the district’ to address the backwardness of the region during 11th five year plan period. It calls for adherence to District Planning (DP) guidelines for undertaking the envisioning and situation analysis of the districts constraints and drivers for growth. The DP guideline calls for accessing the services of an identified Technical Support Institution (TSI) for facilitating the envisioning and situation analysis in the district.
Discussions have revealed that much of the envisioning and preparation of district plans was outsourced with little involvement of the community. The RM did not come across any instance where the Gram Sabha had been convened for commonly identifying the needs of the village or the lead sectors for propelling growth. One of the reasons cited was the limited time provided to the state for undertaking the envisioning and participatory planning. The time provided to states (as informed by state officials) was around 3 months - within which participatory planning was not possible.

A look at some of the sample village plans revealed that the village planning process was very mechanical. The TSI had simply looked at the infrastructure gaps in the village based on priorities set by state government and incorporated them in the village plans. Discussions in some of the villages also revealed that village priorities had either not been addressed in the plans or had somehow been put on a backburner. One instance in the Magarkatha GP revealed that it required a pucca AWC, drinking water facility and toilets, but had instead received a community center, which was not much in use. (5 months and 8 weddings in the village later it was still to be used by villagers)


Schematic plans and not integrated plans
The District Planning guidelines of 2006 called for the preparation of an integrated district plan which estimates the resource envelope available for planning, incorporates the plans (and resources therein) of the SHGs/ Financial institutions like Commercial/ Cooperative Banks, NABARD and other private players operating in the district. It also called the states to estimate and communicate to the districts resources available to them under various centrally sponsored schemes, Finance Commission and the state plan. The BRGF guidelines also warned against schematic planning - “This will be done without giving any schematic overlay to BRGF that would be subversive of the principle of local prioratisation in planning”
However, in the districts it was found that the district planning for BRGF had been essentially planning for a scheme and not a part of the integrated district planning as was envisaged in the guidelines.
The following process was adopted for the district planning:
1. State communicated to the districts the amount of funds allocated to them under BRGF based on horizontal allocation formula spelled in the BRGF guidelines.
2. The normative formula for inter-se allocation within the districts was not devised by the state and the distribution was left to the wisdom of the district.
3. The village perspective planning undertaken by the TSI was consolidated at the block level. During consolidation activities that could be undertaken under other schemes were removed from the plans and submitted to the district.
4. At the district level the ZP further consolidated the plans, prioritising needs to the resource envelop available under BRGF.
5. The consolidated plans were then presented to the DPC for approval, where the DPC members vie for an equal share of works in their area. (This happened due to the absence of the state formula for inter se distribution of funds.)
6. Upon equal distribution of funds to all areas (to the satisfaction of DPC members) DPC recommended the plans to State level High Power Committee for a further approval required under the BRGF guidelines.
7. The HPC scrutinized, endorsed the plans to GoI.



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