KURNOOL: The much-touted ‘Mee Kosam’, an initiative launched by the district administration to address grievances of people seems to have turned into a huge farce. There have been instances of some hapless citizens, mostly hailing from poor economic background, ending their lives unable to face excruciating wait for help from the officials.
People are forced to make several visits to the collectorate at the district headquarters from far off places for getting their grievances redressed after submitting their petitions to heads of departments concerned during weekly ‘Mee Kosam’ programme held every Monday. Notwithstanding Collector S Satyanarayana’s repeated warning to officials to take the programme seriously, ‘Mee Kosam’ has become a weekly bureaucratic ritual.
District officials led by the Collector hold ‘Mee Kosam’ every Monday from 10 am to 2 pm at the headquarters of each Assembly constituency. The heads of all the departments attend the programme and receive complaints from the people. But, there is a marked lack of seriousness among some officials who arrive late and leave the place early. Though the complaints are forwarded immediately to departments concerned, they gather dust as the officials at the lower level treat them with same scant respect as their bosses do.
On an average, 400-500 petitions are received by officials at ‘Mee Kosam’ every week. Most of the complaints are about land disputes, revenue staff harassment, pension issues required urgent attention from officials. According to sources, nearly 70 percent of complaints have been pending. The initiative has become a lacklustre affair as there is 50 per cent drop in the number of petitioners turning up for ‘Mee Kosam’. For instance, a petitioner Kiran, from Allagadda committed suicide at the collectorate after allegedly failing to receive any justice from officials.
Two farmers, one from Yammiganur Assembly constituency and another from Pathikonda ended their lives over the alleged indifferent attitude of the officials to their petitions. In yet another case, a farmer M Venkateswami, of Gospadu in Dhone mandal, attempted suicide over tahsildar’s indifference to his petition for regularisation of his land record. S Noor Basha, a petitioner from Nandikotkur, who has applied for return of his land acquired by the government has been waiting in vain for a response. “The land was acquired for distribution to poor people. We want return of the land as the government has not distributed it to the poor. My mother passed away and my father is bed-ridden, but my petition remains unattended,” he lamented.
District revenue officer G Venkatesam said they forward the complaints to the department heads concerned. He says most of the people turn up late and fail to interact with officials at ‘Mee Kosam’. Refuting the allegations of neglecting citizens’ grievances, he says at least 80 percent of petitions were attended to.