State Chief Minister Raghubar Das, while expressing his displeasure over inordinate delay taking place in the construction of panchayat buildings coming up across the State, has ordered to handover the work to the villagers through Gram Sabha. The CM’s fiat came while reacting to a complaint lodged during the ‘Seedhi Baat’ programme organised for grievance redressal.
The issue was brought before him from Ramgarh district where a panchayat bhawan is being built since 2010 and still continuing. “How come a panchayat building can remain incomplete even after five yearsIJ Does it take five yearsIJ Issue show-cause to all those contractors where such a delay is taking place,” said the baffling CM to Rural Development Secretary NN Sinha present in the interaction on Tuesday that has also completed one year of operation.
Instructing further the Chief Minister told the Department to involve villagers through Gram Sabhas prominently in the building construction exercise. “Engineers are incapable of building Panchayat Bhawans. Inordinate delay is taking place. Ensure that in future villagers themselves construct the buildings,” said the CM.
Total 19 matters were heard by the CM on the occasion coming from different parts of the State. Haripad Das of Bokaro raised acquisition of his 36.99 acre land by NHAI while improper compensation is being offered. The CM directed him to go in appeal before the Additional Collector. Similarly, the CM directed officials of Energy Department to talk to the CCl to restore power supply to a village at Chatra till the State’s own connectivity reaches there.
later in his address, the CM said that confidence of people had been restored in the system since his Government came into power. “People’s confidence is the base of effective governance. Confidence of people on the system had been shattered during the last 14 years but I can say that it has been restored in last 15 months since this Government has come into power. Success of Seedhi Baat and Jam Samvad is an indication. I would not claim that we have been able to achieve this 100 per cent but I think it is not less than 50-60 per cent,” he said while acknowledging role of Information Technology in reducing gap between people and Government and in curbing issues of middlemen and corruption up to a great extent.
The direct pubic interaction programme has so far registered about 56,555 complaints and over 28,000 out of them have been settled satisfactorily. On Tuesday, the CM also inaugurated two lED screens installed at Bank More and Saraidela of Dhanbad that besides, disseminating information about various schemes would also telecast live the Seedhi Baat programme for common man.
The CM also recognised the role of civil society in good governance and recalled pre-budget consultations and ‘yojna banao abhiyan’ run throughout the State. He, on the occasion, felicitated four individuals for tendering suggestions before the budget making exercise. One of them was Krishna Kant whose idea of Agriculture Single Window System earned accolades even from Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he inaugurated it from Jamshedpur last month.
“I propose here to keep the practice of suggestion sharing on for ever. Every Department should invite such suggestions from the people that can reduce the cost of any developmental project and save public money. A reward of Rs 1.5 lakh would be given to such ideas,” said the CM.
When asked about paltry sum of Rs 5 raised as wages for MGNREGA workers, the Chief Minister assured to look into the issue. “The matter has come to our notice and we have sent a request to the Union Rural Development Ministry to revisit the decision and revise the hike given to the labourers,” he said.
About 200 MGREGA workers of Manika block in latehar district have posted five rupees notes with covering letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi opposing the meager revision made. The appraisal has brought daily wages under the rural job scheme from Rs 162 to Rs 167, much below what the minimum wage — Rs 212 — is in Jharkhand.