District is the most suitable administrative unit for decentralized planning below the state level as it possesses the required heterogeneity and is small enough to undertake people in planning and implementation and to improve productivity; district planning is an important tool.
With the 73rd and 74th amendments<ref>See 74th Constitutional amendment act 1994</ </ref> of the Constitution of India, decentralization of planning is emphasized and the methodology of district plan was changed. The approach suggested for the preparation of the district plan is as follows:-.
Steps in district planning
The sequence in the preparation of district plan can be as follows
Preparation of district vision, block vision and gram panchayat level vision. Preparation of participatory plan involving Gram Sabha from Gram Panchayats to Zilla Parishad. Preparation of plans by Urban Local Bodies. Consolidation of plans prepared by local bodies by District Planning Committees.
Planning starts with the preparation of vision documents by local bodies.
Block vision
After finalizing the vision document for the district at the district level, the document will be discussed at the block level and a vision document for the block will be prepared with some modifications based on the conditions of the block. The vision document for each block need not be completely different because the agro-ecological conditions of some planning units at this level may be same, particularly when a district is divided into a large number of Inter Mediate Panchayats as in the case of Andhra Pradesh. Even though the same vision is adopted for some blocks / mandals, it is necessary to have the vision owned by the Intermediate Panchayat. This exercise will be done by a team of experts at block level. The same team will be responsible for plans at the GP level. However, the team will take some members like professionals or retired persons belonging to the area to assist the team in the preparation of the plan. The general formats for planning at the lowest unit level viz., GP or ULB will be prepared at the district level and they will be adopted with certain modifications at the block level.
Vision of the Gram Panchayat will also be prepared accordingly. The vision of the GP will be based on the Socio-economic Profile of the GP and views of the GP.
Plan for grama panchayat/municipality
At the third stage, the plan at the GP or ULB will be prepared. This will be prepared by the team with the help of people's participation. The will first interact with the GP and prepare a vision on the lines of the district vision. Once the Gram Panchayat vision is approved, the team will conduct several Group Discussions to find out the potentials, needs and constraints of the village economy in Gram Sabha. The felt needs of these communities and the support needed for improving their livelihood conditions will be elicited. Once this exercise is completed, it will be discussed in the Gram Sabha. This approach will help to study the situation thoroughly and prepare the plan. In particular, all the schemes CSS State sponsored schemes will be examined thoroughly with a view to understand their suitability to the area. This can be more easily ascertained from the beneficiaries/stake holders. The plan should also take into account the long term development perspective of the GP and also natural resource management (NRM) aspects.
Plan for block panchayats
The above three steps followed the top down approach in the preparation of the district plan. After this GP Plan is prepared and no plan is ready at higher levels except the vision. The Plans at the higher levels will be prepared in the next steps. In this step, the GP plans will be consolidated and put before the IP. In the GP plans, the benefits of some of the schemes will go beyond the GP and such schemes may figure in the other GP plans also. Hence, they have to be separated and duplication has to be avoided. Similarly, some schemes which provide benefits beyond the GP level may not be identified in any GP. The Block Plan has to identify those schemes / projects. This exercise will be done at the meetings of the Intermediate Panchayat level.