In preparing the draft development plan, the DPC shall have regard to matters of common interest between the Panchayats and the municipalities, including spatial planning, sharing of water and other physical and natural resources, the integrated development of infrastructure and environmental conservation and the extent and type of available resources, both financial or otherwise.
There is confusion in states as to whether the DPC is to be established as a separate and permanent office or whether it denotes only a meeting that is periodically called and which can be serviced by a part-time secretariat.
At the same time, the fact that the DPC is held intermittently and without permanent support undermines its effectiveness as a constitutional institution and a coordinating mentor.
All states and union territories except Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, and Delhi are required to set up district planning committees in accordance with Article 243ZD of the Constitution of India.
But the status,[4] as of financial year 2007-08 is as follows: It is clear that the steps taken to operationalize the provisions of Article 243 ZD of the Constitution of India, by the States, have been unsatisfactory.
Despite its shortcomings, DPC should become a fulcrum of planning effort in a district and should be enabled to develop the capacity to undertake expected tasks.