*Tall claims about making admn responsive stand exposed
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 17: Notwithstanding repeated directions from the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti about making administration responsive to the needs of the people, majority of the Deputy Commissioners have not been conducting mandatory field visits and their conduct has been taken seriously by the higher authorities.
In all the meetings with the Administrative Secretaries and the Deputy Commissioners, the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is laying thrust on reaching out to the people particularly in the rural areas to resolve their issues on the spot. She has explicitly told the heads of the civil administration in each district to make field visits a part of their routine duty.
The Chief Minister is of the observation that people have been extremely receptive to administration whenever it has responded to their problems positively and responsibly and field visits would make the administrative more responsive to the needs of the people in the length and breadth of Jammu and Kashmir.
It has been made mandatory for all the Deputy Commissioners to pay field visits at least twice a week so as to assess the grievances of the people at their door steps and resolve on the spot, official sources told EXCELSIOR, adding the field visits not only allow the Deputy Commissioners to understand the situation on the ground but also instill confidence amongst public regarding the administration reaching out to them.
“They are also required to submit work done programme in the form of tour diaries and the work done statements to the higher authorities particularly to the Divisional Commissioners and this exercise has been made mandatory requirement of the official business”, sources further said, adding “not only their own field visits the Deputy Commissioners are also required to ensure that their subordinate officers conduct field visits in their respective areas and submit the reports to the Deputy Commissioners on timely basis so as to ensure proper monitoring and supervision of entire administrative mechanism”.
However, it has been noticed with serious concern by the higher authorities that either Deputy Commissioners have not been conducting mandatory field visits or not submitting tour diaries and work done statements to the Divisional Commissioners, sources said while disclosing that non-adherence to the directives regarding field visits has been noticed in both the provinces of the State.
Quoting some examples of Jammu province, sources said that Deputy Commissioners of two important districts have not submitted tour diary to the Divisional Commissioner Jammu ever since their joining at respective districts. One of the Deputy Commissioners of twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch had last submitted the tour diary in the month of November 2015.
Similarly, two Deputy Commissioners in erstwhile Doda district had last submitted tour diaries in the months of July and December 2016 while as three Deputy Commissioners had last submitted tour diaries in the month of February this year.
“In the absence of regular and up-to-date tour diaries it is difficult to assess whether the Deputy Commissioners have been conducting mandatory field visits”, sources said, adding “if the Deputy Commissioners are themselves violating the directions of the Chief Minister how they could be ensuring field visits by their subordinate officers remains a million dollar question”.
According to the sources, Divisional Commissioner Jammu Dr Mandeep K Bhandari vide communication dated May 15, 2017 has conveyed his serious concern over the issue to all the Deputy Commissioners of Jammu province.
“It needs no reiteration that the work done statements and tour diaries must find regular and monthly submission to the office of Divisional Commissioner”, reads the communication, the copy of which is available with EXCELSIOR. He has expected that all the senior and responsible officers adhere to the basic requirement of administrative monitoring and supervision, conduct mandatory field visits and submit work done statements/ tour diaries by 7th of every month.
According to the sources, Divisional Commissioner Kashmir has also conveyed similar concern to the Deputy Commissioners of Kashmir valley with the direction for ensuring strict compliance to mandatory field visits and submission of reports.
“The non-adherence to the repeated directives of Chief Minister has exposed the tall claims about providing responsive administration to the people”, sources remarked.
Follow our WhatsApp channel