Decentralised governance and planning in Karnataka, India

Anil Kumar Vaddiraju

The Indian Constitution provides local institutions with the status of local self-governments. The Constitutional status means that the local governments are on par with the Central and State governments. In that status they can plan for their economic and human development. This fact, however, is undermined in practice at the state/province level. The provision provided in the 74th Amendment Act of the Constitution for creating and activating District Planning Committees (DPCs) is the responsibility of the state governments. This often is also in contradiction with the interests of the realpolitik of the state level. Often DPCs are not constituted, and if constituted, they are dysfunctional. The creation of the institutions for local level independent planning and budgeting itself is a political process. This is the story not only in the backward states of India but also in states...