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Abstract
Proper planning requires optimum utilisation of human, material and financial resources of a region. This study presents an approach to assess the imbalances in facilities available in various community development blocks of Dehradun district. Educational facilities, Medical facilities, Drinking water facilities, Post office, Approach road, Power supply, Market, Literacy and Irrigated land area have been considered. A GIS data base in ARC/INFO software package has been created which subsequently is used to integrate these data together to rank the development in the district.

Introduction
Today planning is an integral part of our national policy. It embodies the collective aspirations of people as well as the commitment of Government to achieve specific goals and targets. Planning is a process for achieving certain self-defined and pre-determined goals laid down by a central planning authority. In other words, planning is usually done at the top level. On the other hand, in case of decentralised planning, planning is generally carried out from the bottom e.g. each village panchayat may be asked to prepare a plan for the economic development of the village and each industry may be asked to prepare its own development plan. Thus, an important objective of the decentralised planning is the optimum utilisation of human, material and finance resources and to ensure involvement of those people for whom the plans are intended to be implemented (Ali and Kumar, 1997).

Planning commission, from sixth plan onwards, has also laid considerable stress on area based micro-level planning in which a district is considered to be a viable unit. The district level planning begins with the analysis and prioritisation of the small areas (micro-regions) as well as needs of the people (different social classes) and demands for the future development. Further, it provides a framework which rationalises and integrates them with the objectives laid down for state (sub-national) and nation. District is thus an atomized part of the national level macro-space, and hence district planning is required to be carried out scientifically so as to generate development from grassroots (Mukherjee and Bhoosnurmath, 1993)

Intra - District Disparities: Basic Concept
The development in a district is never uniform. For the formulation of a development plan for a district, it would be necessary to make a critical assessment of present scenario, on the basis of available resources (natural/physical) and potentials, nature of local needs and problems, the priorities assigned to different socio-economic activities and the trends of development. Owing to the difference in the levels of economic development and provision of various facilities among the sub-regions (community development block level) of a district, it is essential to carry out intra-district disparity analysis for prioritising the developmental programme within a district.

The purpose of the present study, therefore is to examine the distribution of infra-structural and socio-economic facilities in the district Dehradun and to categorise various community development blocks of district, based upon overall level of development, using the concepts of Geographical Information System (GIS).

GIS and District Level Planning
From the early days of civilisation, human activities have always acquired geographic information on various themes with their locations and inter-relations. The planners and decision makers always require locational, quantitative and statistical information concerning various cultural features and infra-structural facilities affecting the planning. These information may be available in different forms, such as maps, photographs, textual, graphical or tabular form. Integration and analysis of these information in an effective manner is only possible through the use of a GIS.

A GIS represents a computer based system for capturing, storing, retrieving and handling spatial and non-spatial data. A complete geographical information system perform four major functions i.e. (i) Data input (ii) Data storage and retrieval (iii) Data manipulation and (iv) Data output. GIS integrates policy with land resources and land use, thereby providing a powerful tool for land managers, planners and policy makers. The enormous data on natural resources, socio-economic and demographic setup required for district level planning can be efficiently handled and analysed in a GIS. Different management scenario can also be processed allowing the planners/managers to analyse various alternatives before selecting the most appropriate plan.

Although the use of computers in automating the spatial information for districts has increased but the use of GIS in planning is still very crude. Mohammad (1991) has emphasized the need for applying GIS in micro-level planning. Baburajan and Stalin (1996) have attempted to develop an information system for planning at village level using index criterion in dBase IV for Kothur and Amangal mandals of Mahboobnagar district of Andhra Pradesh.

The Study Area
Dehradun district is situated in the foothills of Himalayas and is facing severe environmental degradation due to various reasons, namely, improper land use patterns, deforestation activities, uncontrolled urban sprawl, industrial and mining activities and population growth.

The district lies between 29058'00" N and 31002'30" N latitudes and 77034'05" E and 78018'13" E longitudes (Fig.1), covering an area of 3088 Km2. The total population, as per 1991 census, is 10,25,679 out of which 5,10,199 is rural. The district is divided into six community development blocks consisting of 764 villages. These blocks are Chakrata, Kalsi, Vikasnagar, Sahaspur, Raipur and Doiwala having 153, 204, 61, 120, 129 and 76 villages respectively.

Methodology and Results
For the present work, a village boundary map for all blocks of the district has been digitized using A0 size CALCOMP 9100 digitizer attached to ARC/INFO (ver. 7.2.1) GIS software. The digitizing errors have been corrected using ARCEDIT module. Nine registration points (TICS) have been used for registering the digitized map to the ground, and to transform the coverage from digitizer units to real-world coordinates. There are 725 inhabited villages in Dehradun district as per 1991 census.


Fig.1: The Study Area

The non-spatial data used for these villages include demographic and socio-economic data. Various facilities and services for the district considered in this study include:

1. Education Facilities:
   Primary Schools
   Middle Schools
   High Schools
   Pre-University College
   Adult Education Centre
2. Medical Facilities:
   Primary Health Sub-centre
   Primary Health Centre
   Health Centre
   Child Welfare Centre
   Maternity and Child Welfare Centre
   Maternity House
   Family Planning Centre
   Dispensary
   Hospital
   Registered Medical Practioner
3. Drinking Water
4. Post Office
5. Approach Road to a Village
6. Power Supply
7. Market/Shopping Centre
8. Literacy in a Village
9. Irrigated Land in each Village

The above data are obtained from Census Handbooks of 1981 and 1991 and updated based upon the information collected from Tehsil, Block Development Offices and NIC, Dehradun.

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