The Gazetteers Department

Introduction.-Planning in the twentieth century has very well been looked upon as the panacea for all economic evils. Our country has put forth the greatest experiment in this behalf so that today practically every economic activity in the country in-volves some degree of planning. It includes the efficient exploita-tion and mobilisation of the resources of the country, increase in production both agricultural and industrial and volume of trade as also refashioning of the socio-economic institutions. Efforts in this behalf are directed towards the wholesome economic take off of the country. For the realisation of the programme the four-tier system including the Panchayat Samiti, the Zilla Parishad, the State and the nation which has been evolved, is used. It serves a two-fold purpose: firstly it enables to have democratic decentralisation of power and secondly it facilitates the execution of the welfare programme in the local natural setting by giving the village- India a pivotal importance. Such approach brings harmonious blending of the psychological as well as the social and economic growth of the individuals in the community and of the community itself of the respective region. It helps in reducing the gulf between the local human factor and the natural resources. Such attempt on a large scale after Independence is an unique feature of our developing economy which implies all-round deve-lopment in the fields of agriculture, industry, trade, commerce, finance and banking, social uplift and rural development.

However, to visualise all-round development of a region or a part thereof in a developing economy within a short period is hasty and unrealistic too. In fact the milieu of the local area must fit in, in the general frame-work of a greater national policy. Naturally a judicious combination between different sectors of economy including rural and urban, industry and transport, agri-culture and forestry, etc., form the high lights of regional plan-ning. This necessitates a thorough survey of the local natural resources and any other economic potentialities and also that of cultural environment in the absence of which there is likelihood of the programme drifting away from the people for whom it is launched. The human factor is very important because all the energies and efforts are directed towards making the peoples life happy and prosperous. As such one can expect that all the eco-nomic forces should reverberate around the individual. It is in this perspective that an attempt is made in this chapter to locate what the district has in its store to unfold to ameliorate the life of the district and to reach the stage of economic perfection if at all such a stage could be visualised. In the preceding chapters, as it can be seen, an attempt was made to give a descriptive and factual account of the various sectors of the economy of the district. Amongst those are the chapters on agriculture and irriga-tion, industries, banking and finance, trade, communications and miscellaneous occupations.

It can be seen from the above discussion that for the achieve-ment of economic prosperity two things are essential: the avail-ability of natural resources and the external factors such as capital, skilled labour, machinery and tools, improved techniques and transport facilities. Besides, the socio-economic institutional frame-work, the policies of the governing authorities, the effi-ciency of the administration and above all the response of the people of the locality, together shape the socio-economic standard and stage of the people and also help in gearing up the economic programme.

Since the publication of the old gazetteer of the district in 1910 many changes have occurred in the administrative set-up and socio-politico-economic pattern of the district. The greatest change is that the district now forms one of the administrative units of the Sovereign Democratic Republic of India. With the reorganisation of States in 1956, the district was transferred from Madhya Pradesh to Bombay State. It forms a part of the Maha-rashtra State since 1st May 1960. Following the principle of the democratic decentralisation of power, we notice another adminis-trative change in the district. The Panchayat Raj institutions are now entrusted with the function of carrying out the programme of socio-economic development.

The district at present includes the same five tahsils which con-stituted the district in 1910. The total number of towns has re-mained the same since 1910, viz., 9. However its area has increas-ed from 3,662 sq. miles in 1910 to 3766 sq. miles in 1961. The total number of villages also increased from 1,159 in 1910 to 1,225 in 1961. These changes are due to the readjustment of district boundaries. Another most important thing to be noted is the prodigious increase in the population of the district. It increased from 6,17,990 in 1901 to 12,62,978 in 1971. Since 1901 the population of the district has increased by 104.37 per cent. This tremendous growth of population is as an important factor in the economy of any district as in that of our nation, as it strikes at the very roots of a developing economy. Of the total population of the district in 1971 the urban population was only 23.87 per cent while the rural population was as high as 76.13 per cent. This again shows how the problem of economic development revolves around the rural population of the district. Naturally the problems of communications, agricultural and industrial pro-duction, health and above all educating the ruralites and changing their attitude to accept a new deal-all connected with the rural population elsewhere in the country, are found in this district also.

Taking into account the elevations and depressions of the coun-try the district can be divided into two broad natural zones, the Payanghat zone and the Balaghat zone. The former includes Malkapur, Khamgaon and Jalgaon tahsils while the latter com-prises Mehkar and Chikhli tabsils. The Payanghat division has fertile soil, moderate rainfall and hot weather. It grows mainly cotton and jowar. The Balaghat zone has hilly lands, forests, cool climate and shallow soils. This region grows cotton, jowar, pulses and bajri on the uplands and wheat in fertile soils. The Purna alluvium and the Deccan trap are the only two geological formations that are found in the district. The alluvium occupies a stretch of low-lying ground where the Purna crosses the nor-thern part of the district.

In the light of the facts above stated an analysis of the economic trends in production, distribution, economic planning, prices, wages, etc., is necessary as a guideline for development planning. Such an analysis would also be interesting and useful as it would describe the economic prospects of a unit like a district.

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