Responsive government
During “LG’s Mulqaat- Live Public Grievance Hearing,” held on Thursday, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has conveyed to his administration in no-non-sense manner that negligence on its part will not be tolerated. He directed withholding the salary of the Social Welfare Department’s Director in Kashmir for delaying the release of salary of teachers working in a special school and after being apprised by an applicant from Kulgam about the issue of raising surcharge in his electricity bills without delivering the same to the consumer, the LG directed Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation Limited for deducting the undue surcharge from the salary of the officials concerned. He also ordered enquiry into unnecessary delays made by J&K Grameen Bank in granting the loan to an applicant and also ordered swift action on other grievances raised by the people during these meetings.
Unnecessary delays, lousy response, redtapism have all along plagued the Jammu and Kashmir. There has never ever been a positive people-government interaction and thus no partnership. People have issues, they have grievances but there is no one to look into these or to address the same. In this backdrop, the initiative taken by the Lt Governor of listening to the grievances of the public personally and addressing the same on the spot is a welcome step that should be made mandatory on all levels of the administration. Lt Governor can not meet and discuss the issued with every citizen having a grievance therefore his administration needs to develop a mechanism wherein Commissioner/Secretaries hold such meetings and listen to the grievances regarding their respective departments. Similarly, the district development commissioner should be directed to have such meeting atleast twice a month to know about the issues confronting the people living within their jurisdiction.
The Lt Governor administration has to work as facilitator to the people of Jammu and Kashmir thus strengthening people-government partnership. Jammu and Kashmir has suffered a lot and thus needs an extraordinary responsive administration. This place has a notorious work culture that results in delays and incompletion of all important projects thus hampering the development and progress. The Lt Governor’s “LG’s Mulqaat- Live Public Grievance Hearing,” initiative is what is needed. If such initiatives are made mandatory from the basic Block level, the things will undoubtedly change for the good. One hopes that the Lt. Governor would continue to run a people-centric administration and would ensure that his administration would follow the directions in letter and spirit. The officers are made to be accountable and holding of salary of a director level officer for negligence would undoubtedly set a good precedence.
