Decentralised Planning Division

1. Rural Development
2. Urban Development
3. Welfare of Forward Communities
4. Welfare of Minorities
5. Welfare of Other Backward Classes
6. Welfare of Scheduled Tribe
7. Welfare of Scheduled Caste
8. Local Self Government Institutions

The basic function of the division is to facilitate and formulate decentralised Plans for the State. The functions and objectives of the divisions are as follows:-

• Preparation of Five-Year Plans, AnnualPlans, Budget Estimates, Annual Economic Review in following areas.
• To help the Planning Board in co-ordinating the process of Plan formulation, implementation and monitoring of Local Self Government Institutions in collaboration with the Local Self Government Department
• Preparation of draft guidelinesand instructions for local-level/district Planning, and undertakes need based studies to improve the decentralised planning process
• Preparation of Annual Plan and Economic Review, answering of Legislative Assembly questions, representing Working Group meetings in respect of the concerned Departments for the approval of projects
• Participation in the Co-ordination Committee Meetings of the Local Self Government Department ; offer comments, advices, remarks andappraisal reports and project proposalsreceived from Sectoral Departments andGovernment from time to time
• The division periodically convenes District Planning Officers’ meeting with a view to evaluate their performance in co-ordinating the decentralised planning process in the districtsand provide necessary guidance to them for better functioning of the offices

Disaster Management Plans

In light of the frequent natural disasters and climatic variations affecting the State, calamities like flood, coastal erosion, drought and landslides are posing serious challenges to the economy. To mitigate the impact of such disasters and to improve the disaster preparedness, for the first time in the country, Government has recently directed all Local Governments to prepare local Disaster Management Plans.The Disaster Management Plans were prepared by Local Governments during January to March, 2020 which changed been integrated with the Annual Plan 2020-21. The Local Governments have to include projects of disaster management and mitigation in their Annual Plans considering the susceptibility of the respective Local Governments to natural disasters as well as their existing capacity to tackle it.

Decentralisation Round

The Government initiated a data collection round called the ‘Decentralisation round’ where data regarding the achievements of Local Governments with respect to subjects dealt by is collected based on a questionnaire. Data collection will help in assessing the functioning of the incumbent Local Governments and also help the new elected representatives assuming office in November, 2020 to Plan future programmes and priorities. It will help in identifying model projects, learn from the functioning of exemplary Local Governments; learn from past experiences, and acquire new knowledge. The data collection and compilation responsibilities will be handed over to the Directorate of Economics and Statistics personnel. It is planned to conduct this round every five years.

Formation of District Resource Centre

To improve the knowledge content as well as the quality of Local Government Plans, the formation of District Resource Centre was initiated in all the district’s under the auspices of District Planning Committees consisting of professionals from development research institutes as well as retired experts from Government Departments.

Subhiksha Keralam Scheme

In the context of Covid 19, a comprehensive project called ‘Subhiksha Kerala’ has been implemented from June, 2020 with the objective of food security in the State. The project is expected to cover an area of ​​₹3,860 crore per annum in the areas of Agriculture (₹ 1,449 crore), Animal Husbandry (₹ 118 crore), Dairy Development (₹ 215 crore) and Fisheries (₹2,078 crore).
The main objectives of the scheme are as follows.

• Fully cultivate fallow lands
• Ensure good returns to farmers through increased production.
• Attract young people and returning expatriates to agriculture by creating more jobs.
• Development of animal husbandry and fisheries sector

Special committees have been set up at the local body and ward-level to ensure the co-ordination of all the concerned Departments and co-operative banks. The Subhiksha Kerala project is coordinated and monitored at the district-level by the District Planning Committees. At the State-level, the Planning Board also evaluates the progress of the Subhiksha Keralam project.

District Plans

District Plans were formulated in 2018 in all districts. It is a constitutional mandate (Article 243D) that the District Planning Committees (DPCs) make district Plans aimed at designing an integrated approach for the development of the district. The other objectives of District Plans are to promote multilevel planning and to ensure greater integration between the development needs and priorities of various tiers of Local Governments and different socio-economic classes in the State and district-level. All the DPCs in Kerala could complete the task of making the district Plans, following the detailed guidelines issued by the State Government. The DPCs in the State have already converted some of the big project ideas that emerged in the district Plans into implementable projects so that it can be jointly implemented by Local Governments and other agencies. Government had introduced a scheme in the State Budget for promoting such integrated projects in the district Plans, with a corpus of Rs 40 crore. Thus the process of aligning district Plans with the Local Government Plan has already begun. In addition, Government has decided to fund integrated and joint projects taken up by Local Governments through Rebuild Kerala Initiative.

Decentralised Planning Division
2nd Floor, State Planning Board
Pattom PO, Thiruvananthapuram
Kerala – 695004
Phone: 0471-2530277/ 9495098611
Email : chiefdpd@gmail.com