5.30 ndian onom
Now the funds can be allocated by a MP seconD strAtA: stAte-level PlAnning
outside of Constituency/State/UTs, too.
By the 1960s, the states were planning at the state
It can converge with the other approved level with their respective planning bodies, the
Central (like MGNAREGA) and State state Planning Boards with the respective CMs
Government schemes. being their de-facto Chairman. The plans of the
Funds from local bodies can be pooled states were for a term of five years and parallel to
with MPLADS works. the concerned Five Year Plans of the Centre.
Public and community contribution is
made permissible in the scheme. thirD strAtA: District-level PlAnning
‘One MP–One Idea’, an annual By the late 1960s all the districts of the states
competition for best innovation in solving were having their own plans with their respective
local problems. District Planning Boards89 with the respective
A proper mechanism for its District Magistrate being the de-facto chairman.
implementation and auditing have also The district-level plans are implemented now via
been put in place. municipalities or corporations in the urban areas
To provide MPs a greater choice under the and the panchayats via the blocks in the rural
scheme, the list of indicative and illustrative shelf areas.
of projects has been expanded touching the fields
of infrastructure development, drinking water, fourth strAtA: block-level PlAnning
education, roads, health, sanitation, natural As a part of the district-level planning the block
calamity, etc. The scheme has been given more level planning came up which had the District
dynamism and flexibility. Planning Boards as their nodal body. Below the
blocks, India developed the planning at the local
MuLtI-LEVEL pLAnnInG level, too.
It was by the late 1950s and early 1960s that the
states demanded the right to plan at the state
fifth strAtA: locAl level PlAnning
level. By the mid-1960s, the states were given By the early 1980s, plans were being implemented
the power to plan by the Centre, advising them at the local level via the blocks and had the District
that they should promote planning at the lower Planning Boards (DPBs) as the nodal agency.
levels of the administrative strata, too, i.e., at the Due to socio-economic differentiations among
district level planning—via the municipalities and the population, local-level planning in India
corporations in the urban areas and via block level developed with its three variants,90 namely:
through panchayats and the tribal boards. By the
89. After the implementation of the 74th Constitutional
early 1980s, India was a country of multi-level Amendments they have become the District Planning
planning (MLP) with the structure and strata of Committees (DPCs).
planning as follows: 90. While people in some areas have socio-cultural
similarities (as in the hill areas with no tribal population
and the people living in the plains, i.e., villages) they
first strAtA: centre-level PlAnning lack economic similarities. Similarly, while people
At this level three types of Central Plans had living in the tribal areas and the hill areas have economic
similarities they lack socio-cultural similarities. That is
evolved over the years—the Five Year Plans, the why all these three habitations had three sets of planning
Twenty-Point Programme and the MPLADS. patterns.