Daijiworld Media Network – Beltangady (SP)

Beltangady, Oct 22: The following incident mirrors the functioning style of the government departments, at a time when Chief Minister, D V Sadananda Gowda, has repeatedly been emphasizing the need to clear all files referred to the departments within 15 days of receipt.

Local MLA, Vasant Bangera, had written to the deputy commissioner of the district, seeking details of action taken in respect of printing of wrong survey numbers, extent, name of the applicant, name of his father etc at the time of changing the Khata in the record of rights. He had drawn the attention of the deputy commissioner to the suspicion prevailing among the citizens that the employees manning the computers commit these mistakes deliberately. He said that in case of these mistakes, the people have to submit petitions to the assistant commissioner through lawyers, and wait for months together to set right them. Precious time and money etc are being wasted in this way, he had said, and asked details of punitive action taken against these erring employees.

He also had sought details of the number of such cases reported in Baltalgady taluk office during the last four years, and details of disciplinary proceedings launched against the officers.

The deputy commissioner had referred this letter to the assistant commissioner, asking him to take action. The assistant commissioner in turn, wrote to the tahsildar. In the letter, the assistant commissioner commented that the allegations appear to be prima facie true, and had asked tahsildar to conduct inquiry and take action. There was no response from the tahsildar to this letter.

After the MLA followed up the matter vigorously, the tahsildar’s office replied after 151 days, saying that action has been taken against the erring staff members. “Since 2008-09, 559 complaints of mistakes committed by data entry operators were received. Of these, 442 have been settled. The remaining 117 cases will be attended to soon. The data entry operators have been suitably warned,” the reply claimed.

The MLA, fed up by the delay as well as the casual response, has written to the deputy commissioner again, seeking concrete action against people committing such errors, which cause undue inconveniences and loss of time and money for the concerned.