LDF government to take action against rude officials

Kochi: If you are planning to register a complaint against erring public officials for rude behaviour, make sure you submit evidence along with the complaint before the head of the  department concerned and also forward it to the government. The Personnel & Administrative Reforms Department, in a communication, ensured that stringent action would be taken against the government official if he/she misbehaved with the public visiting the respective offices.

The circular sent to Mahesh Vijayan dated July 14, by K.R. Pazhani Amma, Deputy Secretary, Personnel & Administrative Reforms Department clarifies that government officials should give receipts to every complaint received from the general public. The letter refers to two previous circulars passed in 2009 and 2015 respectively which had led to the government asking officials to behave. As per the circulars, the government had asked the officials to issue receipts to the complainants within one week.

The officials should inform of the progress made in the complaint in one month and the complaint should be resolved within three months. However, many officials are refusing to comply with any of these orders and the government is flooded with complaints. The order asking aggrieved persons to register a complaint with evidence to the concerned department head with a copy to the government was communicated to Mahesh Vijayan, an RTI activist, who registered a complaint before the government alleging misbehaviour by government officials.

Mahesh had complained that though there were circulars, the officials were refusing to comply with it. Mahesh is an activist based in Kochi. Mahesh complained that when receipt was sought for registering a complaint often there were disputes.He also argued that there were instances of officials registering cases before the police to avenge the person who had complained.