Guys and Gals,
A large part of the massive progress in processing dates was "retrogression". They implemented retro which pretty much reduced their work load to zero and since retrogressed cases are not considered backlogged they were able to move dates by leaps and bounds. There was a government mandate to have processing dates within 6 months of the current date by 2006. How cleverly they were able to bring all dates within 6 months. Now that mandate has been met and they have patted themselves on the back and they are back to their usual tricks. I would not be surprised if the processing dates recede in the coming months as more and more cases become current.
cheers,
saras