Decentralised planning and sustainable development - a study with special reference to water resource harvesting at the local level in Kerala
Krishnakumar, S.
Journal of Rural Development Hyderabad 21(3): 351-367
2002
Document Number: 250894
The decentralized planning exercise undertaken in Kerala, India, with mass participation during the Ninth Five Year Plan has drawn international attention. This paper tries to examine two water resource harvesting projects undertaken in the local level in the state of Kerala. It is shown that the popular participation has ensured the successful completion of these projects. However, there are many concerns that emerged with the process of decentralized planning. In the process of making projects "incentive compatible", the local bodies are constrained to ignore their preoccupation with considerations of 'egalitarianism'. It is suggested that this could probably lead to microeconomic price mechanism making its indirect entry into the pricing of public utilities. This is said to be a possibility given the budget constraints confronted by the state governments, which would have low level of funds at their disposal to devolve to the local bodies. The experiments in decentralized planning however addressed the constraints certain panchayats encountered. This have been possible because of the coordinated efforts of technical, governmental and voluntary institutions towards translating the local demands conveyed through seminars conducted at the grassroots level.