Collector Kulkarni’s new year gift to Rayagada netizens: Action against the officers who came late, made them stay outside
Dr.Badal Tah,Odishabarta
Rayagada, January 5: In a people’s government, putting the last, first is the mantra professed by Mohan Govt. The bureaucrats are supposed to carry out the mantra. The people will not be harassed. Officials must come to the office on time, do the right work, provide people with the right service. And if there is negligence in this, there will be zero tolerance. And this is exactly done by Rayagada District Collector Ashutosh Kulkarni.
It was the 1st grievance hearing of the New Year-2026. Collector Kulkarni, SP Swathy S Kumar, CDO-cum-EO, DRDA Akshay Kumar Khemundu and only a handful of officers were present in the DRDA Conference Hall to address the plights of aggrievd citizens and to their surprise found that most of the chairs in the large hall were empty and many high ranking district officials were absent for a long time.
With serious discontentment, Kulkarni barred those twelve officers, who came late than the scheduled time, ie, 10 AM, to the grievance redressal room from entering. Kulkarni immediately ordered the security personnel and other employees present in DRDA Conference Hall not to let the officer who came late into the grievance room. Since they were barred, an unpleasant situation arouse.
Even Rayagada Sub-Collector Ramesh Chandra Jena was not allowed to enter in the meeting room. Other officers who were denied entry into the grievance redressal room included: DRCS Tanmay Mohapatra, Ashok Pradhan, Asst Conservator of Forests, Srikant Panigrahi, DSSO I/C, Santosh Dhalsamant, Superintendent of Excise, Minati Deo District Social Welfare Officer, Dasharthi Saren, Civil Supply Officer, Basant Pradhan, District Information & Public Relation Officer, Shyamghan Bhuyan, District Education Officer, Sujit Kumar Mishra, Rayagada Block Development Officer, Chittaranjan Mallik, District Industries Officer & Surya Narayana Mharana, District Panchayat Officer. Due to the unpleasant situation, the officers were forced to sit in the room next to the hearing room.
Kulkarni is said to have taken such action as the government is giving top most priority to the complaints of the people and there are instructions to take strict action against the officials who show negligence in this. Even though the hearing of the complaint was going on for more than one hour, the officers were seen waiting outside. Such action of the district collector has created panic among the officers having lackadaisical attitude. Many aggrieved persons were seen supporting such action of the district collector.
“This is certainly a new year gift of the collector to Rayagada commons. If such a big chunk of district level officers are derelicting their duties in the presence of Collector, one can only presume their function and behaviour in their own offices. We are confident of sustenance of such serious actions by the district administration. Kulkarni, the face of Mohan Govt in the district, has shown the way” said Ajay Rath, Convenor of Rayagada Nagarika Mancha, an apex level civic body of the district.
