With the clouds of uncertainty looming over the continuation of tenure of Punjab Governor and UT Administrator Shivraj Patil, the much-hyped public hearing session seems to have become his last priority.
While the city residents eagerly wait for Administrator to listen to their grievances, not a single session has been convened in last seven months citing busy schedule of Patil.
Even as Patil was in the city on Monday, the public hearing session was cancelled.
The last session was convened on January 6 and a total of 14 complainants had turned up at the session.
The Administrator used to hold public hearing session on the first and third Monday of every month. But due to busy schedule of Patil, the public hearing sessions have been either postponed or cancelled in the past several months creating confusion in the minds of complainants.
The sessions are held at UT Secretariat in Sector 9 where the Administrator listens to the grievances of the city residents and all UT senior officials remain present during the session. The public hearing sessions had continued to evoke poor response during last year as it had witnessed a poor turn out of only four complainants each in consecutive four sessions from March to May.
In the past, the public hearing sessions held have seen about 12 complainants on an average and the lowest turn out of three complainants was witnessed on November 19, 2012 and September 2013.
Besides cancellation and postponement of the sessions, the delay in action on complaints received, seems to be bearing on the fortnightly session now. Also, due to the lack of follow-up action or the indifference of higher authorities, the session is losing its main objective and residents' faith.
A senior official of the UT Administration requesting anonymity said that the UT Administrator Shivraj Patil is busy these days and hence, the sessions have not been conducted in past seven months. Earlier, elections were going on and later, when NDA came to power, there was uncertainty about the continuation of his tenure," said the official.
The official added, "Therefore, the Administration had to cancel sessions in the past few months."
As per the existing practice of the session, whenever a complaint is received, it is referred to the concerned department and the officials of the concerned department are directed to look into the matter to redress the grievances of the people at the earliest.
During the UT public hearing session, the same complainants have attended the meeting several times, questioning the very purpose of the session to redress the public grievances in a time-bound manner.
UT Public Hearing session was initiated by the former Punjab Governor and City Administrator SF Rodrigues to redress the grievances of the city denizens. The public hearing session twice a month had become a significant platform for the general public to get their grievances solved.