It has been accepted by all that the goals of economic planning cannot be achieved unless the people
actively involve themselves in the participation, implementation and follow-up of the developmental plans
and programmes. Through the importance of public participation in planning has been accepted right from
the First Five Year Plan, the spirit of participation has not been realized. Whatever planning we have
attempted has low rate of success due to lack of people's participation. In fact people's participation forms
the central idea of democracy. In order to maximize people's participation the Government has taken a
right step in 1992 by introducing 73rd Amendment of the "Indian constitution". A part from strengthening
the Panchyat Raj System the Amendment aims at reducing the political and bureaucratic interference in
the rural development. In this paper we intend to explore the importance of people's participation in
planning; take a stock of some experiments in this regard in Ahmednagar District and suggest alternative
strategy to make people's participation more effective.