In his first conference with district collectors after pulling off a winning hat-trick in recently held Assembly polls, Chief Minister Raman Singh on Wednesday not only directed them to start touring villages but also reiterated to bring about total transparency in all official works.
The meeting held at the Mantralaya here also turned out to be significant as a transfer list of collectors was issued immediately after the Chief Minister’s marathon review of the progress of work under various State and Central schemes in various districts. Singh, at the meeting earlier categorically told the collectors to not get busy only by holding meetings but move out from district headquarters and tour the villages in their respective districts to check out the real problems of the common people.
The Chief Minister said in the meeting that mere sloganeering on ‘Zero Tolerance’ policy will not do while alluding to the anti-corruption driveof the State Government saying 'the implementation of the policy should reflect in the work of the officials.' Singh stated that people’s expectations have gone up with the government coming to power for the third consecutive time in the Assembly polls. ‘It would be the prime responsibility of the entire administration to meet people’s expectations’.
He said that the 'DM-CM-PM' are the key links in the administrative chain. ‘The DM’s role is very important. It had generally been seen that officials busy themselves with meetings. It is not sufficient to just hold meetings. The officials need to regularly tour the villages’. The Chief Minister directed collectors to carry out regular inspection of the works under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) besides a slew of schemes for PDS systems, schools and students hostels under implementation in the State.
He said that the collectors also need to regularly inspect the condition of various facilities in the hospitals in their districts. Singh told the collectors to start holding ‘Career fairs’ in their respective districts on the lines of what was being done in Rajnandgaon district besides holding training programmes for the youth so that they could receive employment in their chosen fields.
The Chief Minister stated in the conference that a target of training two lakh youth had been set for offering Skill Development training to them. He said that there are sufficient number of industrial units in Durg, Raipur, Raigarh and Bilaspur districts which can be identified for offering skill-based training to the youth. Singh also sought information on the paddy procurement drive and custom milling status from the collectors.
The Chief Minister advised the collectors to assess the situation before hand before preparing an Action Plan for taking further steps.