Question : PREPARATION OF ANNUAL PLAN

(a) whether the Planning Commission has issued directives/guidelines to all the State Governments to prepare annual plans at local level and district level;

(b) if so, the number of States which have followed the said directives/guidelines;

(c) whether any mechanism is being developed according to which all the plans are to be prepared on the basis of the requirements of the districts and funds are to be allocated on the basis of those plans only;

(d) if so, the details thereof;

(e) whether the Planning Commission has conducted any economic survey of all the districts in the country;

(f) if so, whether any special economic package has been provided to extreme backward districts on the basis of the outcome of the survey; and

(g) if so, the details thereof?

MINISTER OF STATE FOR PLANNING, PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS, PERSONNEL PUBLIC GRIEVANCES & PENSION(SHRI V. NARAYANASAMY)

(a) & (b): Yes, Sir. The Planning Commission issued Guidelines to all the State Governments / Union Territories for preparation of District Plan in 2006. The Planning Commission has been requesting the States, before the formulation of State’s Annual Plans, to incorporate District Planning in their respective Annual Plans as per the said Guidelines. However, District Planning is still at a nascent stage in most of the States. The State Governments have again been requested recently to incorporate in their Annual Plan 2011-12, the District Plans prepared in accordance with the Guidelines issued by the Planning Commission.

(c) & (d): District Planning is a process of preparing integrated plan for the local government sector in a district taking into account the resources available and covering the sectoral activities and schemes assigned to the district level and below and those implemented through local government in a State. The Guidelines lay down that District Plan needs to have three aspects, namely, the Plan to be prepared by the Rural Local Bodies, the Plan to be prepared by the Urban Local Bodies and physical integration of the two plans with the elements of the State Plan that are physically implemented within the geographical confines of the district.

(e) to (g): No, Sir. However, Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) was started in 2006-07 in 250 districts identified as backward. This programme is implemented by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj.