Revision summary
Article 243ZD creates a District Planning Committee in every district. Its function is to consolidate panchayat and municipality plans and to prepare a draft district development plan. The draft must consider common rural–urban interests, infrastructure, environment, and resources. Four-fifths of members are elected from local bodies in rural–urban proportion. The chairperson forwards the plan to the State; weak practice often leaves the function on paper.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
The District Planning Committee is a constitutional body under Article 243ZD, inserted by the Constitution (Seventy-fourth Amendment) Act, 1992. Its function is to consolidate rural and urban local plans into one draft district development plan.
Body
Constitutional functions
- Article 243ZD requires every State to constitute a District Planning Committee at the district level.
- The Committee consolidates the plans prepared by panchayats and municipalities in the district.
- It prepares a draft development plan for the district as a whole.
- In preparing that draft, it must have regard to matters of common interest between panchayats and municipalities, including spatial planning, sharing of water and other physical and natural resources, integrated development of infrastructure, and environmental conservation.
- It must also have regard to the extent and type of available resources, whether financial or otherwise.
Composition and onward path
- Four-fifths of members are elected by, from, and among the elected members of the district’s panchayats and municipalities, in proportion to the rural–urban population.
- The rest are appointed as the State may provide; the chairperson is also as the State may provide.
- The chairperson forwards the development plan to the State government.
- Metropolitan areas have a separate Metropolitan Planning Committee under Article 243ZE.
Practice
- Where the Committee is late, nominated, or starved of data and funds, district planning remains a departmental list, which is why the 74th Amendment is often called an unfulfilled institutional promise.
- The function is planning integration, not a substitute for the elected council’s own executive powers under the Eleventh and Twelfth Schedules.
Flow diagram
Conclusion
The District Planning Committee’s function is to join panchayat and municipal plans into one draft district plan, with regard to shared resources, infrastructure, environment, and available means, and to send that draft to the State. Article 243ZD states the duty; State practice decides whether it is real.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Satyagraha and Indian Nationalism.
Next question on this syllabus topic (2023 · Q5(d)). View answer →
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Does the DPC levy taxes?
No. Tax assignment remains with the State and the local bodies. The DPC’s listed function is planning consolidation.
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Is a metropolitan city covered by the DPC?
Metropolitan areas are to have a Metropolitan Planning Committee under Article 243ZE. Other districts use Article 243ZD.
Same topic · past papers
UPSC has asked this before
These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
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2025 · Q8(b) · PSIR GS 1 · 15 marks
With reference to Peruvian experience of planning and economic development, examine how the early phase of economic planning in India has laid the foundation for future development -
2024 · Q6(c) · PSIR GS 1 · 15 marks
The legacy of the Planning Commission still has a bearing on India's development policies. Discuss. -
2024 · Q7(b) · PSIR GS 1 · 15 marks
The blueprint of Gram Swaraj is the key to understanding the Gandhian perspective on planning. Discuss. -
2023 · Q6(b) · PSIR GS 1 · 15 marks
How does NITI Aayog as a 'policy think tank with shared vision' visualize the reorganization of planning in India? Justify your answer
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