Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister
Omar Abdullah today asked the officials in his administration
to devote one hour during the day to hear the public.
The Chief Minister asked his Administrative Secretaries
to make one hour available for public hearing between 2 to 3
pm on every working day as a necessary and regular part of
their working schedule.
"No meetings or other business should be fixed during
this one hour," he said and directed them to dedicate this
time solely to meet the people who visit the Secretariat.
During the meeting which was also attended by Chief
Secretary S S Kapur, Omar said "we cannot deliver according to
the expectations of the people unless we recognise our
responsibilities and learn from the experience."
"The ultimate responsibility of making government
functionaries proactive towards public service and ensuring
implementation of developmental schemes lies on your
shoulders," he told the officers.
Omar asked the officers to visit districts and far-flung
areas regularly.
Referring to the recent law and order problem and the
disruption in normal working, the Chief Minister impressed
upon the Secretaries to double their efforts to make up for
the lost time and redress the public grievances.
Omar Abdullah stressed on strengthening of mechanism for
redressal of public grievances and said that besides
Administrative Secretaries, Heads of Departments, Deputy
Commissioners and district officers should undertake field
visits and hear public grievances.
"The need to gear up departments concerned with delivery
of essential services like Health, Water Supply, CAPD, Power,
Education is of paramount importance," he emphasised.
The Chief Minister directed initiating of preparedness
drive for holding local bodies and Panchayat elections as per
schedule this year. "You should start the necessary field work
in this regard gearing up all concerned departments so that
elections are held before the year-end."
He asked the Chief Secretary to hold monthly meetings
with the Deputy Commissioners at divisional levels to review
progress on delivery mechanism and sorting out issues
pertaining to the departments.
"Such meetings should particularly focus on key public
service sectors like CAPD, Health, Education, Power, PHE,
Roads and Building etc. The report of every such meeting and
steps taken to address public demands should reach me
positively," the Chief Minister directed.
Omar laid stress on e-governance and new initiatives in
the IT Sector to make the administration more effective and
responsive. He impressed upon the Secretaries to ensure
attendance of employees in the offices.
-PTI
