The proposed Village Secretariats which will become operational from October 2 will henceforth handle and distribute ration cards, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy said on Tuesday.
In a video conference held with Collectors and Superintendents of Police to review progress of ‘Spandana’, a grievance redressal programme being held on every Monday across the State, Mr. Jagan said the decision to entrust printing and distribution of the ration cards to Village Secretariats was a “revolutionary way forward”.
He expressed his satisfaction over the efficiency with which the programme was being carried out and informed officials that the number of pending grievances had come down to 24% from 59% in a week’s time (July 12 to July 19).
Mr. Jagan made it categorical that the quality of work should not be compromised and directed that a positive message should go to the people.
He wanted all issues relating to ration cards and housing to be resolved within 72 hours by the Village Secretariats and made it clear that he wanted all MRO offices, police stations, sub-registrar offices and municipal offices to be free of corruption so people could get their problems solved without paying bribes.
He suggested that the Collectors review the progress of the programme with the Mandal Revenue Officers at least for an hour after he concluded his meeting.
He was all praise for officials who introduced the tracking system in redressal of problems under ‘Spandana’ initiative in West Godavari district.
Mr. Jagan asked SPs if separate receptionists were appointed in police stations to receive public petitions and said that they should welcome the public with a smile on their faces.
When informed that some of the cases had been pending for a long time, the CM asked the police officers to look into the cases with all seriousness and arrive at solutions by distributing cases among themselves. He said the cases should be handled in a responsible way.
Referring to reports of shortage of sand availability in the market and widespread power outages in some areas of the State, he asked officials to immediately attend to the issues and instructed officials to ensure that all the preparatory work should be done with regard to the housing scheme in order to hand over new houses to the beneficiaries by Ugadi.