The People's Campaign for Planning, launched by the Kerala Planning Board a year ago, is emerging as an alternative development model. Over 5 million people have participated in gram sabhas spread over 990 gram panchayats, 152 block panchayats, 14 district panchayats, 55 municipalities and 3 municipal corporations to translate their aspirations into development plans. Projects are estimated at Rs 1,300 crore, 30 per cent of which is the voluntary component.

The campaign, aimed at decentralised planning, has sent out some positive signals vis-a-vis the alternative plan of development. The campaign is slowly turning into a mass movement, with pressure building up from the grassroots level on political parties, bureaucrats, economists and planners to act.

The CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) Government had set aside 41 per cent of the State budget for the local bodies. The campaign started with development seminars, workshops and resource mapping in various rungs of panchayats. The gram sabhas that followed, had elicited tremendous response with people coming forward with their aspirations and priorities which were documented in the project reports.

These projects were vetted by Voluntary Technical Corps (VTC), an army of 10,000 gazetted officials both serving and retired drawn from different fields. Each block had a 60-member VTC to ensure that projects prepared by local bodies are technically and financially viable. These projects were finally cleared by the District Planning Committees (DPCs) for financial allotment and implementation. At the top of the organisational structure is the High Level Guidance Council headed by E.M.S. Namboodiripad (see chart). And the funds are directly distributed to the local bodies once their projects are cleared by the respective District Planning Councils.

Of the 990 panchayats which have finalised their plans, as many as 850 have already received the first instalment of the Plan assistance for project implementation.

The beneficiaries of each project were identified by the people in gram sabhas ensuring that benefits reach the needy.

The message, that the campaign is an attempt to liberate the process of planning and development from the clutches of certain powerful institutions, seems to have gone down well with the people.

During the one-year period, the campaign also saw sharp criticism from MLAs, MPs including those from the CPI(M). Most of them saw it as an encroachment on their territory. Fearing loss of their present status in planning matters, the legislators mounted an attack on the Planning Board accusing it of acting as a ``super cabinet''. The controversy took a new turn when a Planning Board member stated that MLAs have no direct role in development and they cannot have any supervisory status over local bodies.

But the massive participation of people in the campaign, particularly in the gram sabhas of their respective constituencies, forced the MLAs to end the criticism. Later, a majority of them actively took part in gram sabhas, fearing a backlash from the people.

Initially, the Opposition, the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), opposed the campaign calling it a `gimmick' of the ruling coalition. Their stand, however, changed after the allocation of funds which was on the basis of population. A number of UDF-ruled panchayats found that their allocation was much more than that of the previous years'. The gram sabhas forced both the LDF and the UDF panchayat office-bearers to utilise the funds for implementing the projects prepared by the people. This finally saw the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and K.M. Mani's Kerala Congress (KC-M) taking lead over the LDF in Malapuram and Kottayam districts.

With the beginning of implementation of projects, both the LDF and the UDF have started claiming credit for the success of the first phase.

While smaller parties like the IUML and the KC(M) have given a call to their cadres to work for the campaign, surprisingly no such direction has come from the CPI(M) so far. The campaign has also forced the CPI(M), the Congress, the BJP and the IUML to join hands at least on matters of development.

The campaign, however, received a setback when all major nationalised and scheduled banks in the State sought to steer clear of the Campaign. Despite repeated pleas from the State Government and the Planning Board, the closed-door meeting of State-Level Bankers Committee (SLBC)) on June 16, reached a consensus completely rejecting any idea on the involvement of banks in the appraisal of projects being evolved as part of the People's Campaign.

The Government also came in for sharp criticism from several employees' organisations, including those affiliated to the Left parties, against the redeployment of staff as recommended by the Sen Committee on decentralisation. Leading the protest were organisations of the Secretariat employees.

Planning Board Vice-Chairman I.S. Gulati, however, is confident that the campaign will succeed in breaking the contractor-bureaucrat nexus at the grassroots level. Henceforth, all estimates for projects would be based on market rates and not the out-dated PWD rates which led to corruption and fudging of figures.

Planning Board member Thomas Isaac, one of the architects of the Campaign, pointed out that the common demand at gram panchayats was construction of new roads and schemes for employment generation. According to him, at the end of the annual plan, farm sector would benefit the most. As per the board's directions 40 per cent of the financial allocation is to be utilised in this sector.

Dairy, farm, minor irrigation, drinking water schemes, health and sanitation are the other sectors which would receive a boost from the campaign.In the 50th year of Independence, Kerala has taken the lead in implementing Mahatma Gandhi's gram swaraj. Planning Commission Vice-Chairman Madhu Dandavate, during his recent visit to Kerala, termed the People's Campaign as the practical tribute to the Father of the Nation.

How honest, wise and pragmatic the approach of the politicians, bureaucrats and administrators is in implementing the 73rd and 74th amendments of the Constitution on panchayati raj institutions is what the people would judge closely in the days to come.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.