Grievance redressal trickles down to interior GPs in Rayagada: First of its kind in the district
Dr.Badal Tah,Odishabarta
Rayagada, July 15: It all started during 2016 in the regime of the then Collector Punam Guha Tapas Kumar, who assured to take the grievance redressal system from district headquarters level to block levels and then to gram panchayat(GP) levels. On rotational basis it went on in block levels in all eleven blocks of Rayagada.
The present Collector Swadha Dev Singh has taken this process forward to GP levels. To start with, she has prepared a schedule covering very interior & remote GPs of the district like Putasing in Gunupur block. Putasing is inhabited a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group(PVTG) called Lanjia Saura. The grievance redressal meeting was held in the conference hall of Lanjia Saura Development Agency(LSDA) and moderated by Asima Rao, SO, LSDA & other officials from Gunupur block.
In a three months schedule, Collector Singh has proposed other remote GPs namely Likitipadara from Padmapur block, Kadama from Gudari block, Katikana from Kolnara block, Buthing from Ramanaguda block, Raskola from Bissam Cuttack block, Piskapanga from Chandrapur block, Adajore from Kashipur block, Sibapadar from Muniguda block and Parsali from K Singhpur block.
Singh has instructed all district level officers like SP, CDM&PHO, CDO-cum-EO, Zilla parishad, concerned PA-ITDA, PD-Watershed, DDH-Horticulture, DSSO, DFO, Excise Supdt, DWO, DSWO, DPO, Concerned Sub-Collector, etc to be present in the Joint Grievance Redressal Cell in the remote panchayats. Concerned BDOs, Tehsildars, CDPOs and other block level officials are also directed to be present during the joint grievance redressal hearings.
This is in sync with the steps taken by CMO’s review of District- Level Public Grievances Redressal Meetings through which more than 18,000 petitions were received during 5-T Secretary’s recent visits to several districts. Grievance redressal will come under ‘Mo Sarkar’, CMO will make calls from next month to assess redressal of people’s grievances.
In a befitting manner, Collector Singh has been addressing several issues on the spot through social security schemes, Chief Minister’s Relief Fund(CMRF), incentives for delayed marriage, Mission Shakti, FRA & revenue programmes, agriculture, horticulture, health, etc. Some other grievances are forwarded to concerned departments with strict instructions to address those with immediate effect.
Earlier also after hearing grievances of the public in the block conference halls, for the first time in the history district, she moved to nearby villages to have a reality check of the flagship programmes of the Govt. Spent 1st half inside the hall at the block headquarters and 2nd half in a village. She used the event of block level grievance redressal as an opportunity to assess the implementation at ground zero.
“Collector Singh & Sri Vivekanada Sharma, SP, Rayagada have certainly made a dent in cracking serious issues of public of Rayagada. After thirty years of formation of the district, for the first time in its history, the district administration has gone to gram sabha level and addressed problems in the grassroot. Though Rayagada is infested with Left Wing Extremism, we hope that this process of hearing almost at the village level will wean the villagers away from extremist forces. After the grievance redressal at GP level, she needs to have a reality check of Govt’s flagship programmes in a nearby village as was done earlier.
The administration must follow the footprints of our dear CM Naveen Pattanak, who gives top priority in redressing people’s grievances and has planned to get in touch with the aggrieved through personal phone calls”, said Sri Ranjan Rath, Organising Secretary of Rayagada Nagarika Manch, an apex level citizen’s forum of Rayagada district.
