BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday stated to conduct a survey on 5-guarantees schemes launched by the ruling Congress government in Karnataka soon. The survey will cover about 5 crore population of the State and the aim of the survey on 5-guarantees is to create awareness among the people on the schemes and also to get their feedback.
The 5-guarantee schemes of Karnataka government include free of cost State bus travel across the State from women/girls, Rs 2,000 cash benefit scheme for female head of a family, upto 200 units of free power to every house, unemployment allowances for graduates/diploma holders and 10 kgs of rice for all BPL card holders.
At a meeting of Deputy Commissioners and Chief Executive Officers of Zilla Panchayats, Chief Minister directed officials concerned to initiate steps to cancel Below Poverty Line cards of ineligible families in the State and pointed out about 80 percent of State population own BPL cards which is well above the guidelines of Niti Aayog. When compared with the figures of Tamil Nadu, he said, Tamil Nadu has 40 percent BPL card holders and steps should be initiated to cancel BPL cards of ineligible families and distribute them to eligible families.
“We have implemented many popular schemes and they should reach people,” asking DCs, CEOs to initiate steps in this regard.
He told DCs and CEOs to earn good names in discharging their duties and pointed out to them “A British officer Munro was the Collector of Ballari (decades back) and even today, people of Ballari name their children after Munro. We should all work with the feeling that we are public servants. Only then will people be able to get good governance.”
Chief Minister expressed displeasure over the functioning of some Deputy Commissioners, Tahsildars and Assistant Commissioners and pointed out 8, 234 cases pending in Tahsildars Courts, as many as 37, 587 cases related to Change of Title are pending with Assistant Commissioners’ and among them 7, 522 cases are more than 5 years old.
A total of 10, 838 cases are pending with DCS and of them 4, 207 cases are more than 5 years old, he said and questioned “When DCs keep a backlog, then what instructions will you give Tahsildars and ACs?’
In cases of farmer’s suicides, he directed DCs to act liberally and provide compensation to help bereaved families in availing ex gratia amount. He asked officials concerned not to reject ex gratia claims merely for minor technical issues.
Regarding supply of drinking water, Siddaramaiah directed DCs and CEOs to take utmost care to avoid contamination of water and asked them to replace corroded water pipelines. The quality of water at the source should be tested and also the distribution points once in every 15 days.
