Taking cognisance of irregularities reported in the functioning of various housing committees in Jharkhand during Seedhi Baat programme on Tuesday, Chief Minister Raghubar Das directed appointment of an advisor for each of the Cooperative Housing Committees to monitor their functioning.
He also asked the officials concerned to address all the pending cases of land acquisition by housing committees at the earliest.
Das on Tuesday heard the grievances of people in connection with at least 23 cases at the Seedhi Baat centre in Ranchi’s Suchna Bhawan. He directed the Deputy Commissioners (DCs) of all the 24 districts to hold review meetings in their respective districts every Saturday from 4pm to 5pm in a bid to ensure quick redressal of cases. He asked the DCs to submit a report on the weekly review directly to the Chief Minister’s Office in Ranchi.
Das expressed ire over the anomalies reported in old age pension and widow pension schemes and asked the various districts to address issues related to pension at the district level on priority basis. Listening to grievances of one old age pensioner Narayani Mukherjee, 63, from Ramgarh, Das directed the concerned DC to address the matter within 15 days. Mukherjee had complained that she did not receive her pension since February 2014. “All cases related to anomalies in payment of pension should be solved at the district level before they reach Seedhi Baat platform,” Das said.
Hearing a complaint related to lack of boundaries in government schools, Das asked all the DCs to ensure bio-fencing in all the government schools of their districts. Bio-fencing is the use to shrubs and trees as boundaries that demarcate a plot of land. “Bio-fencing will not only be cost-effective, but also environment friendly,” he said.
Other grievances brought to the notice of the CM on Tuesday included cases related to defunct transformers, delay in payment of salaries and compensation to kin of people killed in Left Wing Extremist (LWE) incidents. Das on Tuesday also interacted with villagers from Basodih Panchayat in Simdega district over videoconferencing and listened to their grievances.
Seedhi Baat was launched on May 1, 2015 and was then called Jan Samwad. It is an interactive platform wherein the Chief Minister could directly listen to the grievances of the people and redress their problems in presence of Government officials concerned. The objective of starting it was to bridge the gap between the Government and the people.
Commoners can lodge complaints over telephone, text messages and through the internet on this platform.
The complaints are reviewed and the officials concerned are asked to either address the matter or justify their inaction.
A full-fledged Jan Samwad Centre works 24x7 on the disposal of cases and monitors progress in each of the complaints lodged here.