Now, Babus To Visit Villages Every Month & Get Public Feedback In Odisha

Bhubaneswar: Senior officers and secretaries of various departments in Odisha will visit and make night halts in villages every month to monitor implementation of government schemes, projects and programmes in all sectors including education, healthcare, irrigation and social security

The monthly visits by officials to rural areas are expected to get direct public feedback on project implementation, ensure effective execution of projects at the grassroots level and detect bottlenecks thereof.

This apart, regular visits by officials would get them closer to people and win their confidence for better governance.

Sources said Development Commissioner Anu Garg has issued letters to secretaries of all the departments in this regard on April 3.  The officials have been asked to visit the villages and blocks in the third week of every month.

Garg has also instructed the officials to strictly follow the directive. The letter clearly stated that the officials would not be allowed to be at Lok Seva Bhawan in Bhubaneswar in the third week of every month.

The officials have to visit the ground zero to interact with people and get to know from them if they are receiving benefits of various welfare schemes and projects, apart from paying visits to blocks and other offices.

They will have to observe the projects lying defunct, incomplete and try to study the bottlenecks hampering the projects.

On the basis of feedback from people and officials at the panchayat and block level, senior officials have been asked to pinpoint loopholes in the system, work out effective strategies and suggest solution mechanisms to move forward the stuck projects and programmes.

It is claimed that with only a year left for the general elections, the state government has gone on overdrive and laid emphasis on good governance in all sectors. Ahead of elections, the government is focused on ensuring maximum welfare for people in its various flagship programmes.

It may be recalled that the state government had earlier directed all secretaries to visit villages, but the order could not be carried out in letter and spirit. On October 28, 2017, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had asked the secretaries and senior district officials to undertake periodic field visits for ensuring proper implementation of government schemes.