lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung’s order for redressing the grievances of the pubic failed to enthuse complainants on the very first day. Chief Secretary SK Srivastava himself went to the Raj Niwas to have a meeting with the lieutenant-Governor while other Principal Secretaries and Head of Departments (HoDs) were not to be found in their chambers. The attempt by the l-G to get the public hearing back to Players Building was a non-starter as the same was not publicised adequately. In some cases, HoDs were present in their offices but there was no public while in some cases, public was moving from one counter to another but there was nobody to redress their problems as many HoDs were not present in their offices. The fallout of the fiasco on Thursday resulted in the l-G calling off his Friday meeting to review the performance of various departments.
In his attempt to streamline the functioning of the Government and make it citizen-friendly, Jung on Tuesday had directed all the Principal Secretaries, secretaries and HoDs to be available in their offices from 11 am to 1 pm everyday except Wednesday to meet public and listen to their grievances for the speedy redressal.
Even the Chief Secretary had issued a circular in this regard, but officials of some of the departments blissfully feigned ignorance about it. Transport and Excise Department officials had no clue that they were supposed to meet the people from 11 am to 1 pm. Transport Department officials then came out with and encore after being ticked off. They altered the timings from 11 am to 12 pm. To make matters worse for the harried complainants was the lackadaisical attitude of the babus. There was none to direct the relief seekers as they were made to run from one counter to another and the timeframe for the redressal of their grievances elapsed.
The reality check done by The Pioneer on Thursday found that Chief Secretary himself went to the Raj Niwas to attend a meeting with the lieutenant-Governor during the public meeting hour. There were three senior citizens who had prior appointments with the Chief Secretary but they had to return empty-handed. These men had come from the villages of the Outer Delhi. However, there were few Principal Secretaries whose offices did not attract even a single complainant.
For instance, the Principal Secretary (Home) Archna Arora was in her office but there was no crowd. Same was in the services department as the HoD was not in the office and a family came with a complaint to get employment on compensation basis.
The employees of services department told them to come after formation of new Government at the Centre as the Model Code of Conduct was in force till May 18. The Transport Department has reduced timing of public meeting by one hour. It has pasted a notification stating public meeting from 12 noon to 1 pm but HoD were busy in official meeting and public were moving from one counter to another. In excise department was not aware about such directions while HoD of Food and Supplies Department was also not in the office and there were no prior information about public meeting.
Delhi Government’s administrative reforms department has been issuing circular from time to time, directing senior officials to conduct public meeting between 12 noon to 1 pm and in case they are not available in office then the next senior officer should attend to the visitors and no meeting should be fixed during the visiting hours. But this practice was discontinued during the previous Government.