| Alleviation of poverty and reduction in inequalities of agricultural development has been the central theme in the Indian development planning since its inception. Decentralization of the development planning from the center and state to District, Block and village levels has also been emphasized as an effective way of achieving stated objectives from the beginning of the planning era. A district has often been suggested as the basic planning unit in the decentralization process and over the recent past, the working group on district planning constituted under the auspices of the planning Commission recommended that the district planning bodies should be vested with the functional powers of sect oral allocation of divisional plan outlays. |