Manual for Integrated District Planning - National Institute of Rural ...

Manual for Integrated District Planning
• plan formulation techniques based on micro-planning and monitoring of such plans/programmes;
• monitoring and tracking fund flows to local governments;
• the underlying basis and the technique of allocating plan ceiling fund in different sectors keeping
in view socio-economic indicators and the priorities that emerge from them. This would also
include making resource allocations under the Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) and the Special Component
Plan (SCP); and
• techniques for guiding and monitoring the performance of local governments.
Training for district planning
Generally, training tasks are entrusted to the State Institutes of Rural Development (SIRDs). However,
there is a need to cast the net wider to bring in those who understand the nuts and bolts of government
functioning and co-opt them as resource persons. While the SIRDs could continue to be the nodal agency
for training and the overall coordination, other officials and institutions can be an invaluable asset if
drawn into training initiatives for the district planning process.
District level
The District Collector and the CEO of the District Panchayat have an important role to play in local
training and they should make special efforts to participate in training programmes. This will also stand
them in good stead as it would build a relationship of trust and openness between them and elected
representatives. Other district officials who can play important roles in local training are:
• district line department officials, who can impart knowledge on their sectors, particularly to the
District Planning Committee and the relevant standing committee representatives;
• the District Planning Officer, who would lead the overall orientation of elected representatives;
• Treasury Officers, who can provide important inputs on treasury practice, budget formulation and
issues relating to fiscal decentralisation;
• NGOs, who would be able to provide important inputs on social audit, right to information and
other issues relating to accountability of local governments to citizens; and
• officials dealing with Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) welfare and Women and Child
Development, who could draw attention to the special needs of these categories of people.
State level
Apart from these efforts, it would be a useful practice yielding high dividends if state-level programmes are
arranged for interaction between elected representatives and the state planning department, the planning
board and the finance department, so that feedback on district planning is regularly obtained.
For urban areas, the existing institutional arrangements for capacity building are as under:
a) Regional Centres for Urban and Environmental Studies of the Ministry of Urban Development in
Lucknow, Mumbai and Hyderabad
b) Centre for Urban Studies at Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), New Delhi
c) National Institute of Urban Affairs
d) Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration (YASHADA), Pune
e) All India Institute of Local Self Government (AIILSG), Mumbai
f) Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), Hyderabad
g) Administrative Training Institutes (ATIs) of the State Governments
h) Thirteen Schools of Planning and Architecture
i) Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad
j) Premier engineering and management colleges and NGOs
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