The Panchayati Raj Department has cracked whip on the district and block-level officers to improve implementation of the anti-poverty schemes and strengthen their monitoring and supervision.
On Thursday, the department warned all the BDOs and asked them to stay put in block headquarters. Any deviation, it said, will be viewed seriously and invite action.
After it came to the notice of the department that some BDOs are not staying at block headquarters, Commissioner-cum-Secretary of the department Aparajita Sarangi shot off a letter to the officers saying that it sends a wrong signal to the subordinates while adversely affecting implementation of the welfare schemes.
Beginning November 1, the department said, the BDOs are required to stay in their headquarters. If government quarters are not in good shape and in need of repair, the officers can go in for rented accommodation. “Under no circumstances, any BDO should be found not staying at block headquarters and this will be closely monitored by the department,” the letter stated.
In case the officers have to leave the headquarters, the BDOs will be required to seek permission from the Collector in writing and mark a copy to the Director (Special Projects) for information. “No Project Director (PD), DRDA, or BDO will come to Bhubaneswar unless called by the Panchayati Raj Department for a meeting,” Sarangi said in the letter.
In a separate letter to Collectors, the Secretary informed that one officer from the department will be tagged to a district as officer-in-charge and he/she will be required to visit the district once a month. Besides, Directors will visit the districts frequently to evaluate performance of the district on 50 parameters.
The PD of DRDAs, APDs (Administration) and BDOs have been asked to tour their respective areas at least 15 days a month to supervise the field work and interact with the people in the villages to assess if the schemes are reaching them. While Additional PDs, (Technical), DRDA, are required to inspect the infrastructure for 15 days.