Saturday, 28 March 2015 00:53
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With the 100-day plan entering its homestretch with little over one-third of the given period left, the Government has come out in defence of the progress it has made so far. It claimed this week that, despite a lack of noticeable coverage in the media, a significant portion of proposals laid out in the 100-day work program had either been completed or were on their way to completion.
The progress report issued by the Government revealed that significant steps had been taken in achieving almost every promise. However, amidst the swift implementation of proposals aimed at reducing prices of gas and fuel, increasing guaranteed purchase prices on tea and rice as well as moves to restoring the rights of victims of political revenge, a large segment of proposals are still in the process of being implemented. Draft bills have been drawn up, arrangements have been made to obtain public opinion, and proposals have been reviewed or are still in the process of being reviewed but it is clear that there is still a long way to go in seeing all the promises being met.
The implementation of certain proposals are notably further along than others although the Government stressed that, regardless of the negative comments emanating from parts of the Opposition, considerable work had already been done in every area covered by the program. The process of implementation however is sure to exceed the 100-day timeline which may be a cause for concern.
It is also difficult to determine at which point the Government and the public can consider a particular proposal to have been successfully implemented. Proposals such as solving the unemployment problem and strengthening provisions that enable young people to hold opinions and express them freely are not problems that have clear solutions. In cases like this, though work has been done to identify possible remedies, it is unclear exactly what requirements need to be met before the Government considers these dilemmas to have been resolved.
Meanwhile, many of the proposed changes are still being discussed in Parliament while action plans are still been drawn up on others. Progress has no doubt been made in achieving these goals but the process is likely to take longer than the proposed period and depending on the outcome of the upcoming election, it is difficult to see how much of this progress will see completion. These procedures take time and understandably so particularly in terms of passing legislation and pushing budgetary amendments. For instance, public sector salaries which are set to be increased by Rs. 10,000 will only take effect in June as will the increase of the guaranteed purchase price paid to dairy farmers. Furthermore, formulating a consolidated salary scheme for the public sector is still being studied by the National Pay Commission, the strategic plan to raise the free health service allocation to 3% has been finalised but needs to be implemented while a proposal to reconsider the integration of finance companies and banks is still being reviewed. These too will naturally take time.
Numerous committees and sub-committees have been working together with the Ministries in collecting data and drafting proposals on various courses of action but the Government simply needs more time to take those positive steps and turn them into something tangible. The Government’s immediate concern will be to create awareness amongst the public of the progress that has been made and to stress that important steps towards sustainable change have already been taken.
