ROURKELA: When RN Pali MLA Durga Charan Tanti walked into the Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) office in Rourkela on Tuesday, he was surprised to see three private individuals handling government files in the absence of a junior engineer (JE).
The three were apparently employees of a private contractor. When asked, the trio said they were voluntarily helping. Sounds strange, but true.
The shocking incident came to light not from a remote area of the district, but right in the heart of Rourkela, during Tanti’s surprise visit to the Panposh ITDA office in Uditnagar. The MLA reached the place around 10.30 am but the head of the ITDA office and the ITDA project administrator were yet to arrive. Tanti found the contractor’s men handling government files inside the office on behalf of the absent JE.
Tanti told this newspaper that during his visit, the outsiders were handling office files and many staff were late. “Outsiders accessing documents in government offices in the absence of officials concerned is a matter of grave concern and violation of norms,” he said and added that he would bring this to the state government’s attention for action.
As a first-time BJP MLA, Tanti has been making surprise visits to government offices and institutions to check employee punctuality and the quality of services provided to people. After the ITDA office, he visited the civil supplies, labour and excise offices.