Jaideep Shenoy/The Hindu 

• The exercise is part of United Nations Development Programme
• Reports for other districts will be compiled later
• Findings expected to help in preparing development plans

Mangalore, Apr 7: The compilation of human development (HD) report of four districts in the State is in its final stages, Principal Secretary in the Department of Planning and Statistics Laxmi Venkatachalam has said.

The compilation of the report for Udupi, Mysore, Bijapur and Gulbarga districts were taken up in 2006-07 under a United Nations Development Programme as a pilot project. Reports for other districts would be prepared later.

In an informal chat with The Hindu on the sidelines of a review meeting here on Friday, Ms. Venkatachalam said that the State Government was preparing the report for the five districts in the Hyderabad Karnataka region in 2007-08. Although the initial task of preparing the reports posed a few challenges, the model evolved there could be used in preparing reports for other districts of Karnataka, she said.

The findings of the report could become useful in planning development activities for the region. “We can work out specific schemes for a particular region based on the deficiencies highlighted in the report,” she said.

Such an approach could help improve the human development indices for the region. Urban local bodies and panchayati raj institutions could evolve strategies to achieve their vision of development, she added.

Development plans

On the issue of preparing comprehensive district development plans (CDDP), she said all districts should pay attention to this as the Planning Commission was particular about it.

The department had issued comprehensive guidelines on how the plan should be prepared. “We want all districts to follow the bottom up approach with gram panchayats taking the lead in preparing the report and sending it to zilla panchayats,” she said.

The CDDP would work on a participatory planning, involving all sections of society. “There are plans to take the help of leading educational institutions such as Mangalore University in the region and seek their expertise in preparing the plan. The CDDP should not be restricted to official planning but take inputs from all to come up with development strategies which can benefit all sections of society,” she added.