Decentralized Planning is an integral component of national planning and they complement each other. The major rationale of decentralization is to generate financial efficiency and quality gains by devolving resources and decision-making powers to local governments for the delivery of services and thereby producing and providing locally relevant public goods efficiently (Robinson 2003).

  Decentralisation is one of the most important subjects which has been debated over the years after independence. One of the basic reasons for this is that the Panchayats and urban local bodies could not function as democratic self-governments due to lack of power and resources.

  Moreover, the inadequate mechanism to conduct elections at regular intervals diluted the democratic nature of the system. Understanding thoroughly the weakness of the system, the Central Government constituted various committees to get proper guidance to empower Local....