1. Development of renewable energy sources : Maharashtra Energy Development Agency (MEDA) has taken up Ralegan under its "Energy Village" programme for development of alternative (renewable) energy sources. Under this programme 1 community bio-gas plant, 2 solar cookers, 1 solar water heater, 10 solar street lights, 163 "Samadhan" smokeless chulhas, 10 bio-gas plants attached to public latrines, 1 television set energised by solar energy and 1 gasifier engine have been set up in Ralegan with 100% subsidy from the government.
2. Watershed Development : Ralegan has earned a special name for its successful watershed development programme. An important component of this programme has been the creation of six underground reservoirs of water on the western water stream in the village. The construction of such a reservoir involves building of a wall (of stones and cement) across the flow of water which is only 2 feet above the ground level but starts from a depth of 9 to 10 feet. The foundation of the wall is filled-up with black soil and stones. The basic principle is that the sub-soil flow of water stream is obstructed whereas the over-ground water flow is checked only marginally. This type of reservoir does not submerge any cultivable lands while the wells on both sides of the water stream upto a distance of one kilometer get recharged. Along with water harvesting, other programmes like development of grasslands and trenching and tree plantation on hill slopes have been taken up quite extensively in Ralegan. All these have made the watershed development a comprehensive programme.The results of watershed development in Ralegan can be clearly seen now. After the rains the hills in the the village are full of high grass which is then harvested and stall-fed to the cattle. The well can be seen full of water for most part of the year. The progress in agriculture is evident from a single fact that in the year 1990 the sale of onions alone was of the order of Rs. 5,00,000.
3. Drip Irrigation : Water from the Kukdi canal has helped Ralegan bring 525 acres of land under irrigation through 'Krishna Lift Irrigation Scheme'. Drip irrigation system has been installed to irrigate 80 acres on which the government subsidy amounted to Rs. 4,42,904 (50 beneficiaries) in 1988-89 and Rs. 2,24,302 (50 baneficiaries) in 1989-90. Chilli and papaya plantation in this land did not yield satisfactory results hence fruit plantation (orange, lime and pomegranate) are now being tried.
4. Technical School in Ralegan : The villagers wanted a technical school to be started in Ralegan. Anna told them in a Gram Sabha that it can be done only if the villagers are ready to put it up with their own money as the government grant may not be available for the same, at least to start with. The village decided that every household will contribute 15 days' salary/income. Even the people on jobs outside Ralegan were informed of this resolution by post and in no time money-orders and personal contributions from the villagers started coming in. A bank account was opened and construction of a building to house the technical school is underway.
5. Debt free village : Most of the individual or group credits taken from the bank for various development schemes have been paid off well ahead of time. The household earnings have gone up and the people have got disciplined about repayments, hence there are no bad debts. It is expected that in the very near future all new programmes will be taken up through internal resources of the village without any bank credit.
6. People's movement against corruption : Large scale corruption by the Social Forestry Department in the purchase of some equipment came to Anna's notice. Anna Hazare collected necessary evidence and exposed the whole matter. The government did not take cognisance of the issue . Anna protested against the government's inaction through "maun satyagraha" in December 1990. On 25th December Anna wrote a letter to the State Chief Minister threatening to return the "Vrikshamitra Award". Promises to take action against corrupt officials and dilly-dallying continued for one year. Anna threatened that on 15th August 1991 he will return the "Padma Shri Award" to the President of India and start on a fast at Alandi. Anna also started mobilising public opinion through press and public meetings. Many young persons came forward to set up vigilance groups to check corruption. Alarmed at all these developments the government immediately filed charges against the officials involved.
7. Development of three hundred villages in Maharashtra on Ralegan pattern : Replicability has always been a big question before every model experimentation and a very difficult one for social experiments. Anna Hazare has taken a big leap forward by taking up development of three hundred villages of Maharashtra, one in each taluka on the pattern of Ralegan.

A large number of village panchayats have applied to Anna for taking up their villages under this programme. A selection criterion was therefore put forth which included among other conditions, readiness of the people to put in "shramadaan", a vow to follow total prohibition, ban on open grazing of cattle, ban on felling of trees and, the most significant being that the local women's group and a voluntary agency should be involved in the implemeritation of the programme.

At the time of going to press, the process of selection had been completed for 265 villages and the first batch of volunteers, about 150 of them, had started receiving comprehensive training in rural development (Ralegan pattern) at Ralegan Siddhi and Khopoli. Two young persons per village will be trained in the six months (March to September 1994) before the projects gets into its second phase of actual work in the villages.

This is quite an ambitious programme and success of this programme probably depends upon the skill of Shri Anna Hazare in the debureaucratisation of the project and in mobilising the people to really make it a people's programme.

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