Union Territories & Panchayats
(1) Every state must have a District Planning Committee at the district level, to consolidate Panchayat and Municipality plans and prepare a draft development plan for the whole district. (2) State law governs its composition (at least four-fifths of members must be elected by and from the district's own Panchayat/Municipality elected members, proportional to rural/urban population split) and functions. (3) The Committee must consider common rural-urban interests (like water sharing and infrastructure) and available resources, and consult specified institutions. (4) The Committee forwards its plan to the State Government.
This ensures rural (Panchayat) and urban (Municipality) development planning within a district isn't done in silos - a District Planning Committee, made up mostly of the district's own elected local-body representatives, is specifically tasked with creating one integrated development plan spanning both rural and urban areas together.
This is the mechanism meant to ensure, for example, that water-sharing arrangements or road infrastructure connecting a district's rural Panchayats and urban Municipalities are planned together coherently, rather than each local body planning in isolation.