Kakinada: IAS officials show concern for public

Kakinada: Bureaucrats, especially IAS officers, have, of late, changed the style of their functioning especially in matters dealing with redressal of grievances of people.

The officers show an attitude that appears to be different from what would generally be seen as bossism. Some indiduals claim that earlier they were not as easily approachable to people as they are today. The change is being attributed to the fact that they were working with a motto and aim of taking administration to people.

Many people having dealt with top officials feel that they would not have touched the hearts of people irrespective of the weather the  public work was done or not.

Many of the previous collectors like Reddy Subrahmanyam, Sathishchandra, Gopalakrishna Dwivedi and others used to spend a lot of time in redressal of grievances of people. The present district collector Karthikeya Misra also pays  attention to sorting out problems of the people. He goes to the people to inquire about their grievances and instructs officials concerned to solve it.

While Mr Misra has been in office, facilities for complainants like seating arrangement and provision of drinking water among others have been started for the petitioners. A grievance cell building that has been opened recently was constructed during the tenure of the collector.

“IAS stands for Indian Administration Service. Administration is always functioning. When I was getting training at the academy, our seniors exhorted all the trainees to pay attention on ‘service.' Only  then can any official get satisfaction and attain his goal," said Mr Misra. He said that though politics and politicians play an important role in a democracy, the execution should be careful in administration. "My grandfather who was a freedom fighter used to tell one thing that we should look into the eyes of the  other person directly and not bend it down. One who can look into the other's eyes is the one who would not have committed any mistake or misled others while carrying out one's duties,'' said the collector.

Mr Misra, a computer science engineering expert, has been paying attention on making the technology accessible to the poor including those in the agency area. He always teaches his officials to do field work to understand the problems of the public. However, there has been criticism against him for the harsh language.

Joint collector A. Mallikarjuna also is trying to inspire the officials. When he visited the Government General Hospital, he noticed the sanitation conditions there very bad.

He took part in cleaning the drains thus inspiring the others. However, according to officials, he should expedite the work of clearing up the files speedily.

ITDA project officer Nishant Kumar cleaned the toilets at the Ashram School at Kothada in Gangavaram mandal in the agency area. Sub-Collector of Rampachodavaram Vinod Kumar also is firm on doing justice to the tribals, in particular the Polavaram victims. However, it is said that he should pay attention on completion of work in time.