District planning and economic development c.2

The process of planned development. in India was directed towards relieving the masses from misery and suffering caused by the existence of poverty, unemployment and inequalities. The development promoted through the plans has no doubt increased production and national income but has failed to make any major dent onthese basic problems. Today development is looked upon from a new angle, i.e. as a human problem and it is directed towards the transformation of man and his traditional social set-up. Its basic goal is to attain the satisfaction of basic human needs.

This radical change in approach to development has created an urgent neces sity for decentralisation of planning with emphasis on planning at the lower level i.e. at the district level. Though district plan ning has been in existence since the begin ning of the planning era in the country, but it has failed to fullfil its objectives. The concept of district planning is still vague, the principles and methodology are still in the evolutionary stage and the activities to be planned at this level have not been identified clearly. The plans are not integr ated properly with the state plans and so are not implemented effectively. Consequ ently, planning at the district level in its existing form has created a spatial hiatus in the planning set-up.

The need to develop a clear concept of district planning based on sound principles of regional planning is an urgent necessity. The present book is written with the objec tive of developing a scientific approach to district planning and reformulate it to meet the challenge of the time.