Kerala - Kozhikode   

‘Use statistical data to prepare Plan process’

KOZHIKODE: Kozhikode district panchayat president K.P. Kunhammedkutty said here on Friday that most of the panchayat projects failed at the planning stage itself as they were conceived in haste.

Mr. Kunhammedkutty was speaking at a workshop organised by the Kozhikode district office of the Economics and Statistics Department for panchayat presidents and secretaries. He urged people’s representatives and officials to make use of the statistics collected and codified by the Statistics Department in preparing the Plan process.

Mr. Kunhammedkutty said realising the benefits of decentralisation and People’s Plan would require prompt collection of data and analysis of the data using statistical methods.

“Not many panchayats keep track of the number of households where toilets have been constructed or the supply of BPL category rice,” he said.

“This information would help us study and improve the planning process.”

He noted that there was lack of co-ordination between the local bodies, departments and various research institutes like the IIM-K, NIT-C, CWRDM, etc.

Mr. Kunhammedkutty said the concept of decentralised planning was hampered by the lack of convergence between top-down and bottom-up initiatives.

The workshop is an effort to motivate panchayat leaders to seek the help of the Statistics Department in the planning process.

The Plan process on projects for 2010-11 will begin in January, 2010 and project proposals from block and grama panchayats would have to be submitted by February 25, 2010 and from corporation and municipalities tentatively by March 5, 2010, said Mr. Kunhammedkutty.

Presiding over the function, Deputy Mayor P.T. Abdul Latheef said the lack of statistical data at the grama panchayat-level had hindered the creation of model projects.

District Planning Officer S. Rajashekharan said the Planning Board utilised the statistical data provided by the Statistics Department very effectively, but this practice was yet to percolate down and become an established ingredient of district, block and grama panchayat project planning.

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