Inaugurating the second edition of the Mass Contact Programme in Ernakulam district on Friday, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said that he was ‘carrying out the duties of a village officer or panchayat secretary’.
“It’s because of the existing system and its issues that I have to carry out the duties of a village officer and panchayat secretary. So far, as many as 45 orders have been issued to modernise the rules and regulations. The Mass Contact Programme attempts to overcome roadblocks that hinder normal process of ensuring justice,” Chandy said.
At the mass contact programme on Friday, around `2.5 crores was distributed, said District Collector P I Sheik Pareeth. He said that this amount is based on the statistics available till 7 pm on Friday. According to the data furnished by the district administration, the total complaints received by the chief minister’s flagship project came around 10,000.
“The Janasamparka programme was a grand success in the district. People flocked to the programme from different parts of the district. Apart from selected people who were specially invited through formal invitation letters, chief minister also received fresh complaints,” the collector said. An amount of `59 lakhs was distributed through Ernakulam collectorate.
Breaking protocols, the Chief Minister several times walked into the midst of the complainants to receive complaints. A large number of people including patients suffering from serious ailments came to meet the CM. According to the official data, a large number of the complainants had requested financial aid under the chief minister’s distress relief fund.
There were also huge number of complaints requesting the shifting of ration cards from APL category to BPL category. It is said that because of the flawed policies of the central government, a considerable number of economically deprived people were included in the APL category.
A huge contingent of police personnel was deployed to provide security cover to the CM in the context of the protest announced by the LDF.
Senior officials from the state and district administration assisted chief minister through out the programme.