Part VII: Jodhpur: The last lap
The last lap at Jodhpur commenced with a false start. I was holding charge of the office of Director of Technical Education of the state of Rajasthan on an adhoc basis during October-November 1974, in the leave vacancy of the then Director, who was on encashment leave and was due to retire on December 31, 1974. I had started thinking about my last lap to commence from January 1, 1975. However, it turned out to be a false start and I kept waiting on the tracks, till the final shot was fired by the state government on July 5, 1975 for my assumption of charge, as Director of Technical Education. The emergency had been proclaimed. All was quiet almost everywhere. It looked like silence of the grave. Incidentally, some of the greatest things, creative thoughts and innovations have found fertile ground during such phases of life.
Those were times of unending spells of unemployment, that, made the people frustrated and restive. The economy of the state was stagnant and the financial resources of the state were extremely limited. The development of industries was stunted and the little bit that they had, was under foreign collaboration with capital intensive machines. The committed liabilities of the state were mounting. Expansion plans of most of the engineering departments of the state were plagued with uncertainty, due to economy cuts and meagre financial allocations. Unlike in earlier plans, the central government was also in a tight financial situation. There was a crying need for reorganization of the existing courses in engineering colleges, polytechnics and industrial training institutes and introduction of new need based diversified courses. The whole environment was extremely challenging and helped us in unleashing a flurry of activities in close collaboration with Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation, Rajasthan State Dairy Development Corporation, Tribal Area Development Commissioner, state government departments and enterprises to open up avenues of employment for engineering graduates, engineering diploma holders and craftsmen, trained in industrial training institutes of the state. And in the process, we developed and operated training and retraining programmes at all levels to ensure that every student passing out from technical institutions of the state was equipped with necessary knowledge and job skills, for meeting the growing needs of state government departments and industrial and commercial establishments.
Following chapters discuss these in detail:
- Commencement of the last lap
- Problems facing technical education
- Proclamation of emergency in the country
- Twenty point programme of Indira Gandhi
- Polytechnics and Industrial Training Institutes
- Service Conditions of Staff
- Khaitan Polytechnic
- Tribal Area Development Plan
- Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation
- Dairy Development in Rajasthan
- Apprenticeship and skill development programmes
- Colombo Plan Staff College
- Emergency and the aftermath
- Morarji Desai
- Freedom from fear
- Janata rule in Rajasthan
- The last lap