Heavy rush of people for submitting applications relating to their requirements continued on Friday, the second day of Praja Palana, the public outreach programme initiated by the new Congress government.
The District collectors informed Chief Secretary A. Santhi Kumari that people continued to throng the venues of gram sabhas to submit their grievances/requirements in respect of various welfare schemes. The Chief Secretary convened a teleconference with District Collectors to review the progress of Praja Palana on Friday.
She expressed satisfaction over the response to the major initiative of the Government and directed the officials concerned to ensure that minor hiccups that were reported in some parts of the State did not recur. The Chief Secretary was particular over the steps to see that there was no scope for sale of application forms, especially by the owners of centres involved in making photostat copies.
The government reportedly received complaints about the number of applications that were being accepted by the counters. Officials concerned were directed to receive 100 complaints through the counters set up for the purpose, but the number exceeded in several areas. They were directed to receive the applications, numbering around 200 and more as the case may be in view of the Government’s resolve to prepare a database of requirements of people, especially those at the grass root level.
The Chief Secretary directed the officials to ensure that people coming to submit their applications were not put to any kind of inconvenience. Steps should be taken to ensure that adequate number of application forms were kept in the centres enabling the people to submit their requests/grievances. Volunteers should be appointed wherever necessary to assist people in filling their forms while separate centres should be made operational for men and women to submit their applications.