Dilution Process of Policy Implementation Strategy: An Analysis of Changes in the Guidelines for Watershed Development Programmes in India

Watershed development programme started in India in 1995 with radical institutional reforms. Involving village level committees and voluntary organizations, the programme made way for a new age in people-oriented development interventions. However, during implementation, for more than a decade, the guidelines for implementing the programme were changed, leading to dilution of a few fundamental objectives of watershed development. This paper attempts to understand the changes, its process, actors involved and their interests using the organizational process model. It concludes that the principles of the original guidelines were not accepted wholeheartedly by the bureaucracy. Subsequently, they were changed to revive bureaucratic control and reinforced through various government orders. The paper finally suggests that policy implementation strategy requiring a paradigm shift are only public goals and they are destined to be diluted in favour of bureaucratic control.