The shrinking Plan

Technology has made the idea of decentralised planning tangible

Commission. Let me now quote from the 1977-78 Annual Report of the Planning Commission, during the rolling plan era: “The Commission has suggested two new developments in the evolution of the country’s planning methodology, viz. (a) the adoption of the rolling plan system and (b) the preparation of comprehensive area development plans at the block level. Year-toyear targets will be set for sectoral outlays and output for major sectors within the Five Year Plan; performance against these targets will be reviewed annually... There is no basis for the apprehensions expressed that the introduction of a Rolling Plan system would mean the abandonment of long-term objectives, reducing the commitment of resources for development, and freeing the implementing agencies from any accountability for non-achievement of targets. The modifications proposed will not mean either the abandonment of perspective planning or the replacement of the discipline of a five-year framework by ad hoc annual decision-making. A new 15-year perspective plan will be prepared for charting the longer-term course of development of the economy as a whole. The Perspective Plan would provide the framework for investment decisions in long-gestation projects for which a fiveyear horizon is inadequate, and for planning for land use, water resources, oil and mineral development and manpower.”

I have refrained from quoting from the decentralised planning sections. In hindsight, both ideas seem prescient and both have a rationale, though Vaidya Sharma wouldn’t have approved.

Decentralised planning lacks the raw appeal that centralised mathematical models possess. Even now, students are fascinated by the Oskar Lange kind of idea of a central planning board completely replicating the market through a tatonnement (trial and error) process. Note that decentralised planning received lip service since the First Plan (1951-56) — District Development Councils were formed, the Planning Commission formulated guidelines for district planning in 1969.

A Manual for Integrated District Planning was prepared by the Planning Commission in 2009. The last quote is from that manual: “From the late sixties to the mid-eighties, the trend was towards greater centralisation of administration. Due to the absence of concerted political and administrative support, panchayats had by the late sixties been superseded in most states. The formulation of Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS), implemented mainly through line departments led to the virtual collapse of the district planning process. Though there were several efforts to stem the tide, (Dantwala Committee, G.V.K. Rao Committee), these were largely unsuccessful.”

The supercomputers of the 1970s were primitive. Forget those, in its heydey of modelling, the Planning Commission didn’t have access even to mainframes. But that remained the aspiration and decentralised planning seemed to replace it in every district with what are now called tablets.

The writer is member, Niti Aayog. Views are personal