Daijiworld Media Network –Udupi (MS)

Udupi, Nov 28: Reshma Uday Shetty, zilla panchayat member, said, “There is a shortage of hostel wardens in Udupi. One warden is handling three to four hostels. There is a lack of staffs in all hostels also. Ladies should be appointed in women hostels for safety of the concerned.” Reshma pressurized CEO of ZP Preethi Gehlot to take immediate action at the zilla panchayat general body meeting held at V S Acharya auditorium here on Wednesday, November 27.

The Social Eelfare department officer said, “There are 20 BCM hostels in Udupi. Five wardens are working by taking up charge of three to four hostels. Only two junior staff are working in kitchen. There is severe shortage of staff in hostels.”

Poor Bio-metric service, delay of ration card distribution, irregularities in sandbars were the main issues in the ZP meeting.

Babu Shetty, zilla panchayat member said, “There is no GPS installed in boats, which are used for sand transportation at non-CRZ area. GPS is installed in CRZ boats. General public are not getting sand as some trucks stay at sand bars for three days. Poor people are not aware of E-Sand App.”

The concerned official said, “License permit has been approved for 170 except three people. There are two sand stock yards in the district. According to the norm, the stock yard should be 200 meters away from the river bank.”

Thonse said, “The other taluk license holders are coming to Udupi. The previous identified sand bars were unscientific. The token system has to be introduced in sand bars.”

Another major issue dominated at the meeting was delay in ration card disposal and members exploded with the series of complaints and problems about thumb impression (bio-metric) in Aadhaar card center, ration card and other places.

Concerned officer said, “There are 165 panchayats in the district and three ration card printing centers are working. We also approach private cyber centers to speed up the printing entry process, but we are getting new ration cards more than earlier. We operate 12 PM to 4 PM every day, we receive 150 applications, but we are able to dispose just 75 applications in a day due to slow server system and lack of data entry operators. Food inspectors are handling three charges at a time. They also receive applications for correction. Thus, the performance is getting less.”

Dinakar Babu, president, ZP Udupi, expressed anger over officials that they are not responding to their queries on specific problems and other zilla panchayat members also complained the same.

CEO Preethi Gehlot instructed the officials of various department and said, “The officials should come to meeting within formation and current updates. The main organizing with one intention, if not, we will take action against them. The received complaint must be resolved within next meeting. The officials should not make any delay in finding solution for problems, unless there is genuine reason.”

Janardhan Thonse was also upset with the system that the general body meeting is not being conducted on time and he is not receiving notifications about the meeting.

Sheela K Shetty, vice president, zilla panchayat, Shobha Putran, Pratap Shetty Marali, Sumith Shetty, Srinivas, project planning officer and others were present.