BENGALURU: Senior KAS officer K Mathai has succeeded in his efforts to strengthen Sakala, the state government programme launched in 2012 to ensure time-bound delivery of government services.
In the first week of June, Mathai, who is also the Administrative Officer of Sakala, had submitted a report to Chief Secretary Subhash Chandra Khuntia about how some important staff were removed crippling the programme. He also wrote about how no new initiatives were carried out to improve the programme.
Chief minister Siddaramaiah had then taken steps to bring Sakala under the e-Governance wing of the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DPAR) from the administrative wing (DPAR). To this effect, government issued an order on June 29, 2017.
The government also issued another order on July 13, extending the service of 50 personnel including officials of the Sakala Board for one more year starting from April 12. According to both the orders, accessed by Express, the posts of two IT consultants (maintenance), 31 district IT consultants, four data entry operators and Group ‘D’ employees have been extended.
Now, Rajeev Chawla, Additional Chief Secretary to the government, DPAR e-governance, will be head of the Sakala Board. Earlier, the additional chief secretary of the Administrative Wing of DPAR was the head.
In his report, Mathai had stated that Sakala was also weakened as the its Additional Mission Director went on long leave without any replacement. A management consultant, an experienced IT consultant, two computer programmers, data entry operators were also removed from service further
crippling Sakala, he said.
Chief Secretary Khuntia had to hold talks with Mathai to avoid embarrassment to the government, after the officer filed a complaint with the Lokayukta against senior IAS officers for alleged intentional harassment, maladministration and delay in disposing of various services.