Having got overwhelming majority in Rajasthan Assembly elections, BJP Government under the leadership of Vasundhra Raje Scindhia introduced the Hundred Days Plan which turned out to be a fiasco proving the allegations made by the opposition after the completion of hundred days of the Government right that the plan had been launched and was being massively propagandized for providing fuel to the voters desire for change till the Parliament elections. Having failed to deliver anything under the previous plan after completing hundred days, the Government has started talking about Two Hundred Days Plan just to enthuse the voters in its favor. If one analyzes the Hundred Days Plan in some depth, one finds there is nothing innovative about it. Most of the announcements were made at the end of the last quarter of the 2003-04 financial years for saving the budgets of the entire department from lapsing and these were given the name of Hundred Days Plan.

It is being assumed that government employees were not happy with the outgoing Gahlot Government, and Congress had to pay dearly in Assembly elections for these measures; they were angry for several reasons like ban on new recruitments, freezing salaries and DA, actively working for rendering the strike by Government employees a failure and registering cases against them. This section of electorate played a major role in bringing the BJP to power in the Assembly elections. Hence the BJP government wants to ride in two boats simultaneously- it wants to do nothing which might incur the wrath of the Government employees and at the same time wants to give relief to the general public though Hundred and now Two Hundred Days Plan. The bottom line is that these desires cant be fulfilled being mutually contradictory.

The declarations Ms. Scindhia made while taking the oath of the CM had nothing new in them. Most of the declarations like supply of electricity for 8 hours to farmers for spring crops, for domestic use in rural areas for 6 hours, providing 20 thousand new electricity connections, putting in place water supply system in 1377 villages and issuing one lac credit cards to farmers were things associated with already ongoing plans. The new declarations were made keeping in view the imminent Parliament elections.

The administrative officers known for their manipulative acumen for presenting a promising picture of development through statistics included even the development tasks initiated and completed during the Congress regime in the Hundred Days Plan. While setting the task of linking rural areas through roads such completed works were shown as the achievement of the BJP Government. The Drinking Water Project named Aapni Yojana was completed by laying old and rusted pipes for linking the villages enumerated under the scheme and it was documented as another project completed without taking cognizance of the fact that the pipeline busted the moment supply was made. It has infuriated the people of the area. The funds kept for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan due to lapse in March were distributed to various schools, but no head master is in a position to give a satisfactory utilization report of these funds. A District Poverty Alleviation Programme is underway in seven districts of the State supported by the World Bank. Even during the Congress regime it was progressing at snails pace. The Hundred Days Plan included no measure for accelerating its pace. Groups have been constituted in hundreds of villages in Churu district under this programme for alleviating poverty through self-employment, but because of the apathy and neglect of the administrative officers, no significant progress has been made in achieving its goals. Hundreds of villages are facing severe scarcity of water. In place of solving real problems, the Hundred Days plan was meant as an instrument of noisy and false propaganda for beguiling the electorate.

The Plans hollowness came to the fore during the voting period. Boycott of elections by 33 villages is ample evidence that the claim of the new Government of fulfilling the basic needs of the people in hundred days is just another false promise. What defies understanding is the fact that Panchayat raj institutions have not been given any role whatever in implementation and monitoring of this plan. Thus, despite declarations for empowering these institutions, they have rather been sidelined and ignored. During the Congress regime, the process of regular convening of ward and Gram Sabhas and planning at ward and panchayat level was started for empowering these institutions. It is true that not all the proposals of panchayats were implemented; yet it undoubtedly was an important step towards their empowerment. During the hundred days of the BJP Government, nowhere ward and Gram Sabhas had been convened regularly. The Congress Government had decided to transfer the 29 subjects enumerated in the 11th schedule of the 73rd constitutional amendment to the Panchayat bodies. It had even initiated the process of transfer of 16 subjects to Panchayts in 2000, but most of the Panchayats found that sheer transference would hardly yield any results until the related Departments are also brought under the control of Panchayats. Presently, the officials of the concerned Departments even dont turn up in Panchayat meetings.

It was for this reason that the Congress Government had facilitated the process of empowering Panchayats by putting Departments related to 16 subjects under the Panchayat bodies in 2003. For this purpose it had merged the Panchayati Raj Department and the Rural Development Department in to one unit so that there could be better coordination between the two. District Rural Development Authorities at district level were put under the Panchayat bodies. The Government employees opposed the decision tooth and nail. In view of the coming elections and the strike of the employees of Public Health Care, the Gahlot Government again brought the Water Supply Department and PWD under the control of their parent Departments. Now, by putting the Agriculture Department back under the control of its parent Department, the BJP Government seems to be saying that development work can only be undertaken and accomplished by Government officers. It has also given the responsibility of implementation and monitoring of the Hundred and Two Hundred Days Plans to the bureaucrats and has further weakened the Panchayat bodies. The reluctance of the government employees to work under the supervision of the Panchayat bodies stems from the fear that theyd not then be able to continue the present practice of remaining absent from their duties as the Panchayat representatives would keep a vigilant eye on them.

Keeping in view the coming elections, it was decided that irrigation canal would be constructed on 30 thousand hectares of land for significantly enhancing irrigation facility under the Indira Gandhi Canal Project, but no efforts were made for providing water supply even in areas which already have basic irrigation structure. An announcement for providing farmers water from canals was made and yet the bottom line is that the farmers of the canal area couldnt sow even 10 percent of their agricultural land because of water scarcity. For them, the year proved to be worse than a drought year. In the previous season, their crops were destroyed by the breakage in the main canal near Gheghra and this year they couldnt even sow their lands. On the other hand, all the Departments are now busy in preparing the framework for the Two Hundred Days Plan in their offices obviously far off from the real problems of the people and farmers.

For the full article, refer to Tehelka.