Planning decentralization and changing paradigm of Indian planning process

Economists have opined that decentralization of governance promotes growth and development. The governance and development discourse continues to embrace citizen participation as a fundamental mechanism for building local capacity towards poverty reduction and socio-economic interface. The decentralization process – as well as the process of planning, in particular – has brought about dramatic changes in the context of central and local-level relationships, which in turn have generated a tremendous impact on local-level planning and development. The planning process has been continuously changing over different period of time since the independence of India. This paper attempts to analyse the planning decentralization and change in planning processes. The decentralization of planning results in the grass-root-level development with active as well as democratic participation of people in the planning process of local governments. The paper provides a generalized model for achieving development from grass-root level through an integrated plan which in combination will result in development at bigger spatial unit, popularly known as bottom-up planning.