INTERMEDIATE PANCHAYATS Sri R.Suryanarayana Reddy, Centre Head, CDP&A

The Intermediate Panchayat’s 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 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 Panchayat’s 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.

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