Two IAS officers conduct ground zero grievance hearing after climbing hilly rugged roads to tribal villages !.
Dr.BadalTah,Odishabarta
Associate editor
Two IAS officers conduct ground zero grievance hearing after climbing through hilly rugged roads to tribal villages for a reality check about basic amenities
Rayagada, March 17: On October 28, 2017, the then Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had asked the secretaries and senior district officials to undertake periodic field visits for ensuring proper implementation of government schemes. While Anu Garg was the Development Commissioner, she issued letters to senior officers and secretaries of all the departments on April 3, 2023 to visit and make night halts in village, GP and block headquarters every month to monitor implementation of government schemes, projects and programmes in all sectors including education, healthcare, irrigation and social security. Senior bureaucrats including collectors were expected to interact with the members of public from different walks of life, patients in CHCs or PHCs, beneficiaries in Anganwadi centres, and tribal girls in schools and hostels. Officers were supposed to randomly select the areas of visit within the district including inaccessible and tribal-dominated regions. The objective was to strengthen ground-level governance. The said directives somehow fizzled out for obvious reasons. Almost after three years, while Anu Garg is officiating as Chief Secretary, a similar govt order has again been issued.
To actuallise the recent order, two Indian civil servants of Rayagada together visited inaccessible areas in a god forbidden hilly terrain of Gudari block. After a district-level grievance redressal hearing at the Gudari Block Office premises, District Collector Ashutosh Kulkarni and Gunupur Sub-Collector Dudhal Abhishek Dilip visited the hilltop villages namely Karlgudi, Rengapadar and Kepiti under Madhuban Panchayat. They walked around 7 km, climbed mountains, crossed streams and visited all the said villages and inquired about the basic amenities of the people
.
Since the problem of Aadhar card and ration card was widespread, the Kulkarni directed the Tehsildar and Block Development Officer(BDO) to immediately set up camps and issue Aadhar and ration cards to the people. Kulkarni directed the accompanying officers to review feasibility of Pradhan Mantri Sadak Yojana(PMSY) to ensure that three villages are provided with roads, drinking water supply and electrification. BDO was instructed to include eligible beneficiaries of three villages in the housing scheme under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana(PMAY) and to issue them work orders and to sensitize them to complete the houses within scheduled time. He advised the Child Development Project Officer(CDPO) and the Block Education Officer(BEO) to expedite the work of Anganwadi centers and schools in these villages. Kulkarni discussed with the villagers about availability of basic amenities in their villages.
As it was a surprise visit, the villagers of three villages were as ashtonished as they were happy to see the district level officers suddenly arrive in their villages and discuss various development issues with them. Kulkarni said that the district administration will visit every last village or unreached village in the coming days to assess the basic amenities of the people and will provide them all possible assistance. During this visit Chief Development Officer-cum-Executive Officer(CDO-cum-EO) Akshay Kumar Khemundu, Gudari BDO Suchismita Behera, Gudari Tehsildar Adala Snehalata, Gudari Block Assistant Executive Engineer, Junior Engineer, Madhuban Gram Panchayat Executive Officer were present.
“Other Babus like BDOs, Tehsildars, etc must follow the footprints of Kulkarni & Dudhal by visiting villages, especially tribal, every month, make night halts & get public feedback for further action at ground zero. This will bring Mohan Majhi’s Govt more closer to people.
Through a Participatory/Rapid Rural Appraisal(PRA/RRA) method, they must assess the saturation in the coverage of various development and welfare programmes for basic facilities. With the advent of a new Govt, it is expected that the Babus will work with a new fervor in this tribal dominated district”, said Bidulata Huika, State Convenor of Odisha Adibasi Manch.
