Amidst the controversy surrounding the ‘Spandana’ programme organised by the district administration for addressing the grievances of the public, the Mysuru Grahakara Parishat (MGP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have criticised the cancellation of the government initiative after some MLAs took exception to the Deputy Commissioner holding the event in their absence.
Taking strong exception to the cancellation of event by Minister for Revenue R. Ashok after some legislators questioned Deputy Commissioner Rohini Sindhuri’s step, the MGP said ‘Spandana’ or ‘Janaspandana’ was not new and it had been conducted in the past by the Deputy Commissioners at district levels and tahsildars at taluk levels to hear public complaints and redress them as part of their official duties of administration.
At the same time, the MLAs also have similar duties in their constituencies and both cannot be combined as each has his/her own way of disposal. But the ‘Spandana’ by the Deputy Commissioner, cancelled recently by the Minister, was surprising and incorrect, it argued.
“The MGP, as an NGO striving for the cause of the aggrieved citizens, is not happy with the decision. In a democratic set-up, bureaucrats and elected representatives should be allowed to work in parallel and should not be allowed to clash with each other. Each has his/her own duty to perform in solving public grievances as per government instructions,” the parishat said, in a release here.
With the sole aim of addressing public grievances, the MGP urged the government to permit the DC to resume ‘Spandana’ without any political interference.
Meanwhile, the AAP has also sought resumption of the programme. Serving the public should be of primary concern and of utmost priority for both government officers as well as elected representatives. Issues and grievances of the common people always go unheard. Many of the government officers and elected representatives have failed to conduct grievance redressal hearings/meetings on a regular basis at the district as well as at the taluk level, an AAP press release said.
“When the Deputy Commissioner is trying to do her job to address the grievances of the public, the elected representatives should not disrupt it. Nothing stops the elected representatives from either joining such meetings or conducting such events on their own. Being people’s representatives, they are the ones who should have been the voice of the public and to hold regular meetings in their constituencies,” argued AAP’s Mysuru unit president Malavika Gubbivani.
Whatever the issues between the Deputy Commissioner and a section of the elected representatives, it should have been sorted out amicably, said the AAP.
