Reaching out people remains least priority for majority of Ministers of PDP-BJP Govt

CM not satisfied with confining of activities to constituencies

Not even paying visit to distts allotted for heading DDBs

JAMMU, Jan 6: Though the PDP-BJP Coalition Government is going to complete three years within next few months yet majority of its Ministers have not started reaching out to the people in every nook and corner of the State to mitigate their sufferings at their door-steps. The most shocking aspect is that the Ministers are even not paying visits to those districts which have been allotted to them for heading District Development Boards.

The slackness on the part of the Ministers of both the coalition partners is being viewed seriously by the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who on her own is leaving no stone unturned to redress the grievances of the people at their doorsteps through her public outreach programme under which several districts have already been covered.

While chairing the meeting of Council of Ministers on April 4, 2016, the Chief Minister had told the Ministers in unambiguous terms that they should leave no stone unturned to meet the expectations of the people and in this regard they should not confine their activities to their constituencies but reach out to the people in every nook and corner of the State.

This was reiterated by the Chief Minister in every Council of Ministers meeting particularly held on the opening of Darbar (rotational Civil Secretariat) either in Jammu or in Srinagar.

She had cautioned the Ministers against confining activities to their respective constituencies or some particular region on the ground that being members of the Council of Ministers they are the representatives of entire population of Jammu and Kashmir.

“However, no seriousness has been shown by majority of the Ministers in reaching out to the people in every nook and corner of the State despite the fact that the Government is going to complete three years within next few months”, sources told EX, adding “barring one or two Ministers all others have confined public outreach activities either to their respective constituencies or their home districts as if they are representing the Government for selected population”.

It has been observed by the Chief Minister’s office that Ministers generally visit different districts either to inaugurate or lay foundation stone for the projects of the departments under their charge. “Even during such visits to the districts the Ministers don’t prefer to convene public grievances redressal camps and their entire focus remains on the specific project”, regretted some of the District Development Commissioners (DDCs) while pleading anonymity.

“For majority of the Ministers reaching out to public means holding grievances redressal camps only in their respective constituencies or home districts besides meeting some deputations at their official residence in the capital cities. Moreover, no efforts are made to ascertain whether any action has been taken on the directions passed during such grievances redressal camps and interactions with deputations”, observers said.

All the Cabinet Ministers are Chairmen of the District Development Boards and in this way they have been assigned the task of acting as mentor of the districts to ensure their holistic development as per the wishes and aspirations of the people.

“Though this mechanism gives them enough power to resolve the grievances of the people yet the Ministers visit the allotted districts only once or twice a year that too just to review the implementation of district plan in a closed door meeting with the district and sectoral officers and legislators”, official sources said.

“It is a matter of serious concern that Chairmen of the DDBs (Cabinet Ministers) are neither evincing interest in enhancing the number of review meetings nor they prefer to hold public outreach programme in different parts of allotted districts”, some of the senior district level officers regretted, adding “if they make it a routine to organize public outreach programme once or twice in every quarter that would be a major step towards resolving the grievances of the people”.

Pointing towards the public outreach programme of the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, which has been a major success, the officers said, “it is unfortunate that Ministers have failed to follow the foot-steps of the Chief Minister. Being the Chairmen of the District Development Boards the Ministers can easily get the issues of the public resolved either by passing necessary directions to the district administration or bringing the same to the notice of Chief Minister”.

According to the highly placed sources, the Chief Minister is perturbed over the Ministers not showing interest in conducting public outreach programme in different districts and serious concern about this will be conveyed to them during next Council of Ministers meeting.