REGIONAL PLANNING FOR SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN MEERUT DISTRICT ABSTRACT THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OP THE DEGREE OP Bottor of ^litlQsiopIip III GEOGRAPHY BY SYED KAUSAR SHAMIM Under the Supervision of DR. ATEEQUE AHMAD DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH (INDIA) 2002 Regional planning envisages spatial development planning for the betterment of quality life and to minimize the existing gap of socio-economic development among have and have-not. All tends to utilize the natural as well as human resources to the fullest extent in order to improve the living condition of the people. Planning is a systematic procedure in an organized manner with the end product as development and is a technique to evaluate the potential of a region and to develop them to their best for the nation as whole. It attempts to discover the plans of the nature for the attainment of man's ends upon the earth. Moreover, regional planning is an effort made for the rational upkeep of geographic areas resulting into the welfare of the society living there. The problem of inter and intra-regional disparity has taken a heavy toll in India. The infrastructure development reflects the economic as well as socio-cultural setup of the region and hence determines the spatial organization of the society. There exists a close relationship between the spatial distribution of socio-economic facilities and the level of social well-being, because uneven distribution of socio- economic facilities creates the functional gap between different regions. The development is a multi-dimensional phenomenon perceived in various ways by the different people and can be explained in two ways in course of time and space, as (i) the measurement of changes in the distribution of developmental parameters between the two given points of time, and (ii) the existing distribution pattern. The regional planners and policy makers take in to account the diagnostic plan (on priority) to eliminate regional imbalances and disparities to the balanced regional development. The objectives of the study are as follows i. to understand the prospects of the planning for socio-economic development, it is pre-requisite to examine the existing physico-cultural and socio-economic conditions of the area under study; ii. to comprehend the conceptual framework of regional planning for the analysis of socio-economic development at macro and micro-level in the context of India and study region as a whole respectively; iii. to analyze the spatial organization of settlements with reference to spating and dispersion of the settlements and the service centres to understand the nature of their distribution with reference to the population of the Meerut district; iv. to determine the hierarchy of settlements and their spheres of influence, based on functional gravity to understand the importance of the service centres and their place of ranking; V. to examine the levels of socio-economic development, taking block as areal unit through spatio-temporal manner to understand the over, under or optimum distribution of socio-economic facilities with reference to threshold population; vi. to propose a strategy for the micro-level diagnostic planning for the balanced socio-economic development in the region. In order to provide specificity and direction to the problems undertaken for the study, the following hypotheses have been developed; i. inter-spacing between the settlements and service centre is directly proportional to the size and functions of the settlements. ii. the big size of settlements require larger sphere of influence and attain the position of higher order facilities by serving larger area. iii. The development of agriculture has a direct bearing on the development of agro-economic infrastructure in the district. iv. the development of socio-economic facilities determine the distributional pattern of settlements. V. all the nine variables, taken in the study i.e., the size of settlements, density of population, growth of population, share of scheduled caste population to total population, literacy rate, share of agricultural work force to total work force, share of non-agricultural work force to total work force, share of net irrigated area to net cultivated area, and the distance of settlement from the nearest urban centre; are positively correlated to the composite score of socio-economic facilities in the district. vi. the level of development is inversely proportional to the size of sphere of influence of service centre. The study is based on both the secondary as well as primary data collected from the study area. The data for the years of 1991 and 2001 has been taken into account for the analysis regarding the levels of development, while the distribution pattern of socio-economic facilities is based on the data of the year 2001. The primary data for the present analysis has been collected with the help of questionnaire, in case of non-availability of secondary data of the facilities available in the district. The village level primary information was collected enquiring from the Heads of the panchayat and Village Development Officers (VDO). The data regarding the urban settlements was obtained from the offices of the Chairmen of the respective town and Municipal Corporation. The secondary data has been obtained from the published literature, government reports, news papers, and unpublished records of the public administration and semi-government agencies. The Census data for the Year 2001 has been collected from Official Records of Deputy Director. Census Opera in tions, Meerut Region. Under mentioned is the methodology adopted to carry out the work; 1. The descriptive approach has been applied for the physico-cultural analysis of the study area. For the representation of relief, interpolation method based on spot height has been used. 2. Technique of partitioned value has been applied for measuring the variations in the distribution, density and growth of population at block level areal units, besides determining the distribution of socio-economic facilities in the district. 3. The technique of correlation and regression coefficient has been adopted to examine the relationship between average spacing and mean size of settlements at block level. The relationship between socio-economic facilities and their correlates has been measured by correlation and multiple regression analysis with the help of computer. 4. The due weightage has been assigned to the locations having the socio- economic and not to the numbers of the facilities therein. 5. A modified 'Reed-Muench' method has been employed to compute the median population threshold (MPT), median population threshold indices (MPTI), and functional gravity of settlements to measure the relative importance of socio-economic facilities. 6. The technique of Scalogram has been employed to identify the hierarchy of settlement. 7. For determining the levels of socio-economic development at block level, the functional gravity of the settlements has been computed, based on composite score of median population tlareshold indices (CSMPTI) per hundred settlements. 8. Based on 'composite score gravity' the 'Non-Intact Range' method has been used for determining and delineation of hinterland boundaries of identified settlements in the study area. The study has been organized into seven chapters. The first chapter deals with the introductory account of the problem of the statement, work review done so far, significance of the study, objectives, hypotheses, data base and methodology adopted for the analysis and chapter scheme. The second chapter deals with the conceptual frame of the 'socio- economic development', and 'regional planning' etc., and their classificatory schemes and chronological profile of planning in India. The third chapter presents an account of the study area in terms of its physico-cultural and demographic setting to analyze their influence in the nature of the distribution of settlements. The fourth chapter explains the spatial organization of settlements in terms of growth, size and patterns of settlements distribution with reference to spacing and dispersion. The fifth chapter presents the spatial distribution of the existing socio- economic facilities and their relationship with the development of agriculture and agro-economic infrastructure. The sixth chapter deals with the functional gravity of socio-economic facilities based on composite score of median population threshold indices (MPTI). The chapter establishes the relationship between the distribution of size of population and socio-economic facilities through the multiple correlation and regression analysis using computer devices. Further, the ranking of the service centres in the form of hierarchical orders has also been analyzed. The seventh chapter illustrates the levels of socio-economic development in space and time. High, medium and low development has been identified and causal relationship has also been examined. For the balanced socio-economic development in the study area a diagnostic planning at micro-level has been proposed. Finally the synoptic view of the work and suitable suggestions has been made. The study regarding regional planning for socio-economic development, draws the following conclusions, summary of them has been given in sequent manner; The socio-economic development depends upon the physico-cultural and socio-economic conditions of the region. The development is pursued through optimum use of the existing natural and human resources