INTERMEDIATE PANCHAYATS

Sri R.Suryanarayana Reddy,

Centre Head, CDP&A
 The Intermediate Panchayats envisioning
and planning process:
The intermediate Panchayat has three roles to
play in district planning. First, it is a local
government in its own right with a clearly
mandated functional domain. Second, in many
states it is given the responsibility to facilitate
Village Panchayat planning through staff
support, providing a forum for coordination and
discussions between Village Panchayats within
its jurisdiction. Third, in many states, it also
functions as an agent of the District Panchayat.
 As a local government, the Intermediate Panchayat shall
prepare its own five year and annual plans in accordance with
activity mapping. While doing so, it must:

(a) Undertake an independent exercise of visioning and

identification of works and prioritization within its
exclusive functional domain after considering the district
vision, the stock-taking document and its own budget.

(b) While doing so, it must keep in mind the feedback

received from Village Panchayats regarding works
outside their purview, such as inter-village road
formation and multi-Pancahayat irrigation structures.

(c) It can suo moto, co-opt Village Panchayat works into its
own plan after giving reasons for the same Box39)
Box 39
Co-option of works
Co-option is a process involving negotiations between
the intermediate and Village Panchayats concerned.
The outcome of such negotiations could be the
retention of these works in the orieginal Village
Panchayat plans or their transfer to the Intermediate
Panchayat plan. Works that lend themselves to co-
option are:
(a) Woks planned in a Village Panchayat, that could be dropped
in preference such as watershed development works and
(b) Works being planned in Village Panchayats that could be
dropped in preference to networked solutions at the level of
the Intermediate Panchayat that are cheaper and more
efficient, such as multi-village water distribution systems.
The Plan Plus software facilitates transparent negotiation and co
option between planning units by making all plans visible to
all the planning units.
 As with Village Panchayats, solutions can be
determined by the Intermediate Panchats on a sectoral
basis by its sectoral standing committees or working
groups, constituted as described in Para 5.2.2. The
processes and workflows for Village Panchayats can be
followed by Intermediate Panchayats too. The first
draft Intermediate Panchayat plan would contain a
complete list of its independent works and co-opted
works. This plan should be sent to all Village
Panchayats in its jurisdiction so that the final resolution
of co-opted works can be arrived at. The Plan Plus
software is the best means to facilitate dissemination
and negotiations.
 Once negotiations are over and agreement reached on
co-option of work, the Intermediate Panchayat will
consolidate all its sector-wise prioritized solutions into
its draft plan document. The abstract format for the
plan would be the same as for Village Panchats, and
provide space for indicating the Intermediate
Panchayats own works, its co-opted works, works that
it undertakes as an agency of a higher authority, and
works that are to be taken up by other agencies on its
behalf (See Box 39)
 The Intermediate Panchayat will undertake spatial
capturing of prioritized solutions on maps. The
Intermediate Panchayat shall also prepare a separate
table that consolidates all the prioritized sector-wise
financial outlays with identification of appropriate
resources as done by the Village Panchayat in the
format prescribed in Box 36. In this exercise, the
Intermediate Panchayat could also identify those works
or solutions that fall outside its purview, but that could
be taken up by higher levels such as the District
Panchayat, and list them separately.
 The workflow for the Intermediate Panchayat planning
process would largely be the same as described in Box
34 and 35, except that there would be consoltation with
Gram Panchayats and not Gram Sabhas.
THANK YOU