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Government. It had little power to dictate
line departments and had no infrastruc-
ture for independent assessment of re-
sources although it was empowered to
allocate funds for line departments of the
Centre and also of the States. In pre-inde-
pendent period the freedom fi ghters de-
manded that the Union Government
would receive one-fourth of the revenue
collected by the States and the States
would utilize the rest of the funds. Unfor-
tunately, the ratio was reversed and the
States were receiving only 25-30 % of the
revenue. Fo the assessment of resources
for human and material development, the
Commission could utilize Panchayat and
Nagar Palika for planning. This could only
be done through participatory neighbour-
hood survey by the people. Instead Plan-
ning Commission and Planning Boards,
across the nation, had to depend upon the
secondary data provided by the line de-
partment which was collected by employees
and not by the people5 .
The developmental plans and projects
thus bound to be formulated from topdown
manner and were implemented as
directives. The recipient and the grass
root implementers were seldom taken into
confi dence. So, their participation became
mechanical and casual.
West Bengal Scenario
The State Planning Board in West Bengal
was formed in 19726 . The fi rst Planning
Board undertook various activities in the
fi eld of agriculture, irrigation, animal
husbandry, forestry, industry, power,
transport, science & technology, education,
planning and miscellaneous. These
endeavours were not sustainable for the
causes mentioned above. Planning from
grass root was initiated in January 2002 on
the basis of procedure prepared in 19857 .
The modality is
presented in modifi ed form which is
as follows:
1. Collection of data through participatory
neighbourhood survey on :
a. Human resources based on stratifi ed
socio-economic status and gender
Profi le.
• Education, Employment & Health
• Special participation of marginalised
people (Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled
Castes & Minorities) was solicited.
b. Natural resource.
• Land ( along with its character) i.e. cultivable,
fallow, marshy & rocky etc.
• Water resources of different types.
• Forest – character with assessment of
forest products.
•
•
Shrubs – its scope of utilisation.
Agricultural diversifi cation.
c. Animal resources including situation &
scope of improvement.
d. Any other relevant information ob-
2.
tained during neighbourhood survey.
Identifi cation of capabilities & effi -
ciency of the local people to evaluate
the available resources and their opti-
mum utilisation. They can prioritise for
implementation from these informa-
tions. People in the country were en-
trusted to work out the following as-
pects of development.
3. Maximum utilisation & prioritisation
of the resources through their own
planning process.
4. Assessment and optimisation of their
own resources.
T RANSFORMATIVE PLANNING
5. Financial supports through Gram Sam-
sads, Gram Panchayats, Zilla Parishads,
State and National Schemes and other
fi nancial agencies.
The State Planning Board organised
several meetings in twelve districts and
discussed the principle and modality of
planning from the grass root with threetier
Panchayat system. A lot of enthusiasm
was created but unfortunately this exercise
could not be operationalised because
Planning Board was only an advisory body
and had little control over the line departments.
Moreover, State Planning Board
of India had no infrastructure of its own
to conduct even a pilot study to collect
primary data of resources and plan from
the bottom.
Department of Development and Plan-
Planning Board had no infrastructure
of its own to conduct even a pilot
study to collect primary data
ning undertook the task of preparing Human
Development Report of the State
involving State Planning Board. The
project was supported by UNDP. This
exercise was done by collecting secondary
data from different level of the administration.
The informations were back dated.
So, their effectivity for correction of
the defi ciencies was limited.
District Planning Committees (D.P.C.s)
have constitutional authority. Here also
planning virtually becomes disbursement
of funds coming from State and Union
government. The resource mapping at
various levels was not done. Thus the exercise
becomes mechanical and mostly
beaurocratic. The elected members of
D.P.C. are not trained for this exercise.
The data is collected through National
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