People's Plan Campaign, held in 1996 in
Kerala State, was an experiment in
decentralization
Decentralization or decentralisation is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those regarding planning and decision making, are distributed or delegated away from a central, authoritative location or group.
Conce ...
of powers to local governments with focus on local planning. Kerala State lies in the south-west part of India. In India's
Ninth Five-Year Plan, each state within the national federation was expected to draw up its own annual plan and the People's Plan was an offshoot of it.
In the beginning of the ninth plan, the
Government of Kerala
Government of Kerala is the Subnational administrative division, subnational government of the Indian state of Kerala. The government is led by a chief minister, who selects all the other ministers. The chief minister and their most senior mini ...
took a bold 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.
New Government in power
In 1996 on assuming power, the ruling
Left Democratic Front
The Left Democratic Front (LDF) is an alliance of left-wing political parties in the state of Kerala, India. It is the current ruling political alliance of Kerala, since 2016. It is one of the two major political alliances in Kerala, the oth ...
(LDF) took the agenda of
decentralization
Decentralization or decentralisation is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those regarding planning and decision making, are distributed or delegated away from a central, authoritative location or group.
Conce ...
as the first priority item.
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
*
District Planning in Kerala
*
Local Governance in Kerala
*
Nava Kerala Mission
References
External links
Five years of Participatory planning in Kerala : Reality or rhetoric by Jos Chathukulam and M S JohnLocal Democracy and Development : Keralas People’s Campaign for Decentralised Planning by Dr Thomas Isaac & Reichard W FrankeCampaign for Democratic Decentralisation in Kerala : An Assessment from the perspective of Empowered Deliberative Democracy by Dr T M Thomas IsaacMoving 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
* ttp://www.flonnet.com/fl2301/stories/20060127002309300.htm A left Agenda for Kerala
Dr M A Oommen Committee Report on Decentalised Planning and Development, Government of Kerala, April 2009
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peoples Planning In Kerala
Local government in Kerala
Economic planning in India