People's Planning refers to the establishment of local self-government institutions in Kerala in 1996 as per the 73rd and 74th amendments of the Constitution of India in 1992 which entrusted states with the responsibility of establishing Panchayati Raj institutions and Urban Local Bodies. In Kerala, it underwent during India's Ninth Five-Year Plan, and hence it was also called "People's Campaign for Ninth Plan".
During the ninth plan, the Government of Kerala took a decision to devolve 35 percent of the state development budget down from a centralized bureaucracy to local governments where local people could determine and implement their own development priorities. This was implemented through the People's Plan Campaign (PPC) under the joint supervision of the Department of Local Self-Government and State Planning Board.
Outcome
Studies on the performance of the people's planning and decentralization tend to show a mixed trend: it is not a resounding success but also not an utter failure. There were several issues that hampered the plan from the start and these included "weak and highly centralised administrative setup and inadequacy in administrative procedure, lack of experience, and inadequate database." These challenges often prevent the state government to pass the financial and management functions to the local level.
However, recent developments start to demonstrate efficiencies once administrative controls are eliminated. This is attributed to the elimination of the opportunity for administrative corruption as well as the increased transparency due to the involvement of several people at several levels of the decision-making process.
See also
References
- Peoples planning : kerala's dilemma by K P Kannan, Seminar 485 2000
- Sivaramakrishnan, K.C. (2006). People's Participation in Urban Governance: A Comparative Study of the Working of Wards Committees in Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and West Bengal. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company. p. 140. ISBN 8180693260.
- Prakash, B.A. (2004). Kerala's Economic Development: Performance and Problems in the Post-Liberalization Period. New Delhi: SAGE Publications India. p. 373. ISBN 0761932933.
- ^ Kumar, T.M. Vinod (2017). E-Democracy for Smart Cities. Berlin: Springer. p. 79. ISBN 9789811040344.
External links
- Five years of Participatory planning in Kerala : Reality or rhetoric by Jos Chathukulam and M S John
- Local Democracy and Development : Keralas People’s Campaign for Decentralised Planning by Dr Thomas Isaac & Reichard W Franke
- Campaign for Democratic Decentralisation in Kerala : An Assessment from the perspective of Empowered Deliberative Democracy by Dr T M Thomas Isaac
- Moving the State: The Politics of Democratic Decentralization in Kerala, South Africa, and Porto Alegre by Dr Patrick Heller.
- Democratic Decentralisation and the Planning Principle: The Transition from Below by C P Chandra Sekhar
- Kerala Peoples Plan Revisited by Gilbert Sebastian. Mainstream XLVI 2008
- A left Agenda for Kerala
- Dr M A Oommen Committee Report on Decentalised Planning and Development, Government of Kerala, April 2009