How Punjab Government works
By P.P.S. Gill
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab Government is adept at doing certain things with alacrity:

It is fond of constituting committees. It gets conducted surveys on every conceivable subject; and later vacillates in decision-making on men and matters.

All these three situations are a by-product of the numerous meetings the political executive chief adores to hold at all places and all the time. Even after micro details have been discussed there are follow-up meetings with officers working at the cutting edge of the administration. Their presence at field meetings keeps them away from normal duties, much to the chagrin and inconvenience of the people who make repeated rounds of officers for redressal of genuine grievances.

In the process the government ties itself in knots with the implementation of proposed schemes taking a back seat. More often than not even the sanctioned money does not reach the end-point, leading to an impression that the SAD-BJP Government, despite best of intentions, lacks competency to deliver the goods. Consequently a feeling of alienation and frustration is gaining ground within and outside the politico-administrative structure.

There is a perception that the government has failed to make an impact in the past 18 months. To counter this, the SAD-BJP combine evokes public sympathy and expresses its empathy with the people, who have suffered in the past and continue to be deprived of certain basic amenities and facilities, including clean drinking water. Before setting its own house in order, the blame is apportioned to 50 years of Congress rule ("mis-rule and mismanagement"), during which "corruption was institutionalised".

But there is little or no realisation that as a result of so many meetings at so many levels with no monitoring and accountability, the flaws of the government surface. Of the many ambitious schemes and projects that have been bogged down due to one or the other politico or administrative reasons is one regarding tackling joblessness in rural and urban areas. There is a committee even on rural and urban unemployment. The current year's Annual Plan has main focus on generating job opportunities, particularly, of "self-employment" followed by "wage employment and in private sector."

The government hopes to generate jobs for 2.88 lakh persons in the current year through various plans and schemes by incurring an expenditure of Rs 584.94 crore. The government cannot find solace that the number of persons registered in employment exchanges has come down to 5.77 lakh (as on March 31, 1998) from 7.51 lakh (as on March 31, 1992). An elaborate plan on employment of rural youth in Punjab has been prepared. It is slow in making a headway. As a consequence of that and toeing the example of Israel's Kibbutz, the government has come up with Kaljharani and Padri experiments; former in Bathinda and latter in Amritsar district with a view to providing "self-employment", "training" facilities and enabling youth to raise their incomes.