KANNUR
Local Government and Excise Minister M.V. Govindan Master said here on Monday that the aim of local governments was not just to govern the people but to serve them. The Minister was speaking at the inauguration of a review meeting for the chairpersons and secretaries of the local bodies in the district as part of the Nava kerala Local Government 2022. Local governments needed to provide services that the people wanted. Service to people was not a courtesy. Representatives and officials were the servants of the people, he said, and added that all systems needed to re-orient themselves this way. Deputies and bureaucrats should realise that they were assigned to serve the people. Local bodies still had a long way to go, the Minister said. As part of the reforms, the Local Self Government Department, which functioned as five departments, was consolidated. The department had decided to reduce the number of file transfers to facilitate public service. From now on, a file will be seen by three persons instead of 13 persons as at present. Each officer would have individual responsibilities. Files could no longer be piled up. It should be made clear that the responsibility for completing the application lay not with the applicant but with the officer in charge. Mr. Govindan said local governments should give priority to housing for the poor, employment for young people, including educated women, promotion of entrepreneurship and achieving sanitation in the State. During the meeting held at the District Panchayat conference hall, issues related to expediting and effective implementation of various schemes of the Local Self Government Department were discussed. The Minister also released the documentation of the poverty survey conducted in the district.
