Planning  in Himachal Pradesh :

The most important aim of planning is to identify a process of development which will raise living standards and open out to the people new opportunities for a richer and more prosperous life. The basic objectives of planning can be grouped under four heads, growth, modernization, self reliance and social justice. In one form or another but possibly with varying emphasis, these objectives reflect the views of all sections of the population and represent a national consensus on the aim of planning. The era of Development Planning on H.P. started with the initiation of First Five Year Plan in 1951. Since then 16 plan periods in the form of 9 Five Year Plans and 7 Annual Plans have been carried through with the following tenures :- First Plan (1951-56) Second Plan (1956-61) Third Plan (1961-66) Annual Plan (1966-67) Annual Plan Annual Plan (1967-68) (1968-69) Fourth Plan (1969-74) Fifth Plan (1974-78) Annual Plan (1978-79) Annual Plan (1979-80) Sixth Plan (1980-85) Seventh Plan (1985-90) Annual Plan (1990-91) Annual Plan (1991-92) Eighth Plan (1992-97) Ninth Plan (1997-02) 10thPlan ( 2002 – 2007) 11th Plan (2007- 2012) 12th Plan( 2012 – 2017).

A very large part of the credit for the achievement goes to the care and benevolence shown by the Central Governments all through and the dedication and commitment of the State Governments to push the process of development at large.

Decentralised Planning :

The concept of decentralized planning is as old as the Gandhian economic thought. The development of village economies through active participation of people for their own development and the ideology of self sustaining village economies is, in fact, ingrained into Indian Philosophy from vedic times. The concept of decentralized planning was accepted in principle, since the beginning of planning era in the country but the first step towards the decentralization was taken during the First Five Year Plan. In Himachal Pradesh , conscious efforts for the formulation of the District Plans, were made during the Fifth Five Year Plan so as to address the problems of poverty, unemployment, inequality, infrastructure backwardness.

The Decentralized Planning process was initiated in a phased manner and the steps taken in this direction to ensure adequate involvement of people and their representatives in the decision making process are briefly discussed in the succeeding paragraphs :-

i) Local District Planning : The scheme was first introduced in the year 1984-85 to provide space for planning and implementation at the sub-State level .Under Local District Planning Scheme, Rs. 29.78 crore were utilized for carrying out different developmental works of local importance during the year 1997-98 to 1999-2000. From the year 1999-2000 this scheme was discontinued and a new programme called as Vidhayak Kshetra Vikas Nidhi Yojna (VKVNY) was launched, to clear the pending liabilities, Rs. 3.45 crore were earmarked for this programme.

ii ) Vidhayak Kshetra Vikas Nidhi Yojna (VKVNY) : Towards strengthening of decentralization process and for ensuring more active involvement of the elected representatives in addressing the micro–level issues of development, the State Govt., started a new scheme "Vidhayak Kshetra Vikas Nidhi Yojna", during the year 1999-2000. The scheme envisaged allocation of Rs. 15.00 lakh per MLA for taking up developmental schemes/works against the most felt needs of the area in his constituency. During the year 2000-01, the allocation was enhanced to Rs. 20.00 lakh per MLA . The funds were allocated to the Deputy Commissioners for the implementation of this programme on the recommendation of the Member of Legislative Assembly . The implementation of this programme ensured balanced development of all the areas in H.P irrespective of political affiliation and all elected MLAs also got equal treatment. Since, Hon'ble MLAs were directly involved, the implementation and monitoring was effective and intensive. It was ensured by the Deputy Commissioners that schemes recommended by the concerned MLAs of the area were sanctioned within a month’s time and funds utilized within one year of the sanction.

iii) Vikas Mein Jan Sahyog (VMJS) : To elicit effective peoples' participation through decentralization planning, some funds were diverted from the Local District Planning , allocation in the year 1991-92 to start a new programme "Gaon Bhi Apna, Kam Bhi Apna". In the year 1994 the programme was restructured and renamed as "Vikas Mein Jan Sahyog". Under this programme, people were insisted to come forward for meeting their most intensely felt needs with a public share of 30% of the project cost in cash and Govt. could provide the rest by sanctioning such developmental schemes benefiting the community. During the initial year, it was provided under the programme that a developmental scheme would be sanctioned in the ratio of 70:30, 70% Govt. share & 30% Public share in rural areas and 50:50 in Urban areas. One of the very strong elements of this programme apart from effective participation by the stake holders is a priori provision for maintenance of the assets created which is also funded on a similar sharing basis as the project cost.

iv) Sectoral Decentralized Planning Programme :The guiding principle was that the schemes should be in the nature of meeting critical gaps or missing links and should also enhance the credibility of the grievances redressal machinery Only constraint applied is that no diversions are allowed from earmarked outlays from rural water supply head of development. The DC is, required to get works approved from the District Planning Development and 20-Point Programme Review Committee. The basic thought behind this measure was that, as and when District Level Public Grievances Redressal Committees meet, they are faced with minor developmental grievances which do not find place in the budget and at the same time are so small in financial implications that these could be instantly met to enhance satisfaction level of people through public grievances redressal machinery. The programme has been in operation for the last over eight years now and has met with a great success. The Govt. decided that , there would be no earmarking of funds for SDP under Panchayati Raj and Local Self Govt. Plan heads of development because of flow of funds as per recommendations of the State Finance Commission to the Panchayati Raj Institutions and Urban Local Bodies.

v) Member of Parliament Local Area Development scheme(MPLADS) : This scheme has been introduced for implementation as a Central Sector Scheme from the year 1993-94. The objective of the scheme is to authorize M.Ps to recommend small works of capital nature demanded by their Constituents. Planning Department has been declared the nodal agency for implementation of this scheme and it coordinates the implementation of this scheme with the concerned DCs.

vi ) Mukhya Mantri Gram Path Yojana : During the year 2002-2003 a new scheme " Mukhya Mantri Gram Path Yojana" was started in the Pradesh which aims at providing connectivity to villages from nearby motor able roads. Under this scheme only Kuchha Paths in rural areas would be made mettled besides having a provision for the construction of small culverts/bridges which would otherwise may be necessary for providing smooth and all weather connectivity to the people residing in far flung areas.

Backward area sub plan :

 The most backward pockets in our country had not been receiving special attention through the general process of development. It is in this context that the need for specific mechanism to take care of developmental backlog of such areas was felt-towards the end of Fourth Plan. The evolution of a sub-Plan concept manifested itself as the tribal sub-Plan across the country during the Fifth Plan. Even beyond this it was realized that disparities in the level of development persisted in areas outside the Tribal Sub Plan and such areas were not tribal areas by design of the Constitution of India.

 Redressal of such micro- level disparities was perhaps, attempted in Himachal Pradesh during the seventies. To begin with such micro level pockets constituted very small areas with extreme economic backwardness with near total absence of basic developmental infrastructure. Hence this necessity gave birth to the formulation of the Backward Area Sub Plan, which was designed to look after the developmental needs at the micro level for these identified areas. After the introduction of the Tribal Sub-Plan in Himachal Pradesh in the beginning of Fifth Five Year Plan, the most backward pockets outside the Tribal belt started receiving special attention towards development of backward areas. The State Government started sincere efforts to identify all those backward areas, where the basic developmental infrastructure was lacking. The process of identification of backward areas was started in Fourth Five Year Plan. The basic criteria decided for this purpose was remoteness, inaccessibility, coupled with visual perception of the level of socio-economic development and infrastructure backwardness. A total number of 489 Gram Panchayats out of 3037 Panchayats in the State have been declared as Backward Panchayats in Himachal Pradesh.