CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday asked the Deputy Commissioners to regularly convene outdoor meetings in the field especially in villages to ensure on the spot redressal of people’s grievances to their satisfaction.
Chairing a meeting of the Deputy Commissioners here at Punjab Bhawan this morning, Mann asked them to organize special camps along with their team of officials in a particular village or town at their doorsteps for prompt resolution of pending issues or problems faced by the general public in a result-oriented manner.
Terming the deputy commissioners' as eyes and ears of state administration, Mann said, "You are the real face of the government because people have direct interface with you rather than us (government) as they repose unflinching trust and confidence in you”.
He also urged them to conduct surprise checks at the Saanjh Kendras as these centres have been primarily set up for the convenience of the public and asked them to provide citizen-centric services seamlessly.
In recognition of the best performance of Divisional Commissioners, DCs, SSPs, SDMs and other field officials, he also announced to honour such officers/officials with the ‘Best Performing Award’ to further motivate them to serve the people with missionary zeal.
In a bid to bring the drug addicts into the mainstream Mann gave a target to start and upgrade all the drug de-addiction and rehabilitation centres in all the districts within a month so as to effectively rehabilitate the youth, which had gone astray and fell prey to drugs. He said since the rehabilitation of drug addicts is of paramount significance and would be instrumental to lead them a life of self-respect.
The CM assured the Deputy Commissioners of complete autonomy to discharge their duties to the best of their abilities and capacities without any political pressure. He, however, said that extending due respect and basic courtesies to the people’s representatives and the common man is a prime duty.
While reviewing the status of ongoing wheat procurement, Mann asked the DGP to further intensify the vigil round the clock in order to check the illegal movement of wheat from across neighbouring states to Punjab as several unscrupulous traders often bring wheat clandestinely to sell in mandis across the state on MSP.
He asked the DGP to deploy 24X7 videography teams on these nakas till the end of the procurement season. Responding to Chief Minister’s concern in this regard, DGP VK Bhawra informed that
out of 132 nakas put up by state police, as many as 86 are interstate nakas while 46 within the state with a total deployment of 1150 police personnel. These surveillance operations are being overall supervised by the Additional DGP MF Farooqui with senior police officials in the rank of SP and DSP in all the districts.
Expressing concern over the fast depleting groundwater level, Mann directed the Financial Commissioner Agriculture DK Tewari to ask all DCs to launch a vigorous campaign in their districts in sync with Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana to educate the farmers to go for Direct Seeded Rice (DSR) technology in a big way instead of the conventional paddy transplantation as this
new technology would ultimately help the state considerably arrest the trend of falling water tables.
Making a brief presentation on wheat procurement, Secretary Food and Civil Supplies Gurkirat Kirpal Singh said that elaborate arrangements have already been made for 135 Lakh MT as per the estimate of the Agriculture Department.
Showing satisfaction over the preparedness of wheat procurement Mann also asked Chief Secretary Anirudh Tewari to issue detailed guidelines to DCs to regularly visit the mandis to monitor the progress of procurement in their respective districts in consultation with the district managers of various procurement agencies, Food and Civil Supplies officials and local representatives of farmers.