Sambalpur: Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi conducted a grievance hearing session, the first outside the state capital, in Odisha’s Sambalpur city on Monday.
Eleven ministers, including Deputy CM KV Singh Deo, Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari, Panchayati Raj Minister Rabi Naik, Food Supplies & Consumer Welfare Minister Krushna Chandra Patra, and Sports & Youth Services Minister Suryabanshi Suraj, were also at Sambalpur Municipal Corporation (SMC) office, where hundreds of people of 10 districts began gathering since early morning to voice their concerns and submit grievances.
Eleven IAS officers – Satyabrata Sahoo, Nikunja Bihari Dhal, Arbinda Padhee, Usha Padhee, Manoj Sahoo, D K Singh, Surendra Kumar, Sanjeev K Mishra, Shubha Sharma, Shalini Pandit and Anupam Shah – also attended the hearing.
Earlier speaking to the media, CM Majhi said the initiative seeks to take the government closer to the people. “By stepping out of Bhubaneswar, we are trying to reach out to the people directly and strengthen grassroots governance. It will also greatly ease the hassle of traveling to Bhubaneswar for resolving grievances,” he said.
Similar grievance hearings would be held in other districts too, he added.
The hearing at SMC catered to residents from 10 western Odisha districts — Sambalpur, Deogarh, Sundargarh, Jharsuguda, Bargarh, Balangir, Boudh, Kalahandi, Nuapada and Sonepur. Comprehensive arrangements were made with special facilities for differently-abled persons (wheelchairs, sign language interpreters and assistance for the visually impaired), water points and ORS stations and refreshments provided by NGOs.
While 1,000 grievances were registered online and offline, an additional 300-400 walk-in complainants were expected. Accordingly, on-spot registration was made available under tented areas fitted with coolers.
Notably, Majhi had revived the public grievance hearing, discontinued since 2008, after taking charge as the CM, at his official residence at Unit-V from July 1, 2024.
THE PUBLIC GRIEVANCE HEARING IN PICTURES
