A week after it resumed following consecutive cancellation for three weeks, the Public Hearing conducted by the District Magistrate was again cancelled on this Monday. Those who came to the DM office from far-flung places in the district, hoping to be heard out by the DM S A Murugeshan, returned disappointed. They said they had not been informed beforehand that the hearing was being cancelled.
Notably, the ‘Public Hearing’ had been cancelled on three consecutive Mondays in July. The officers-in-charge during that time had claimed that due to the anti-encroachment drive, DM had not been able to reach the office. last Monday, DM had, however, held the public hearing himself during which directions were given to different departments, including MDDA, Municipal Corporation of Dehradun, health department, revenue department and some more. Along with this, a new feature had been added to the public hearing-registration of the complaints on the 'Samadhan Portal'. This Monday, while all the complaints made by the people present for the hearing were filed on the portal they looked far from assured as they found no Government officer present. last Monday, around 23 complaints had been filed on the ‘Samadhan Portal’ which were later looked into by the DM himself.
Regarding the online portal system last Monday, DM had said that the introduction of the system would help the people a lot as the complaints and the follow up actions are maintained in the official records. “This would help the concerned departments to resolve the problems which are unaddressed,” he had said.
Queried over the cancellation of the public hearing at the last moment again, leaving the people who came in distress, the officer in-charge said, “We were informed that the Public Hearing was cancelled as the DM was to attend a meeting in the Secretariat.
All nine complaints have been uploaded in the ‘Samadhan Portal’ which will be resolved at the earliest.”