Assam: Public Grievances Redressal Day ignites hopes aplenty for common man
Hailakandi
Public Grievances Redressal (PGR) Day conducted by the Hailakandi district administration received overwhelming response. The PGR Day is being conducted every Tuesday. Today is the second PGR Day, the first conducted on April 3.
People from nook and corner of the district, some from far-flung and inaccessible areas, formed serpentine queues to submit petitions pertaining to various issues such as power, piped water supply, water logging, sanitation, health, deplorable condition of municipal roads, rural roads, land related issues, encroachment, on schemes like MGNREGA and IAY, flood protection works, appointment on compassionate ground, transfer and posting et al.
Giving patient hearing to the complainants, Deputy Commissioner Adil Khan directed the Circle Officers and heads of concerned departments to address the genuine problems faced by the people within a stipulated timeframe. “There should not be any dilly-dally on addressing the genuine problems faced by the people in a time bound manner,” he said.T
The Deputy Commissioner asked the Executive Engineer, Public Health Engineering, to convene a meeting with officials of municipal board and urban water supply and sewerage board to augment the piped water supply that dates back to more than 30 years. The piped water supply plant commissioned in 1985 covering a distance of 10-12 km of greater municipal areas of Hailakandi town caters to 10,000 to 12,000 denizens while the present population of the town is more than 80,000.
On matters pertaining to encroachment, water logging, non-completion of roads, encroachment, piecemeal efforts to prevent erosion, complaints on non-release of instalments under IAY, the Deputy Commissioner directed the concerned officials to look into these complaints and initiate measures in right earnest.
The Deputy Commissioner asked the Joint Director, Health Services to redress the grievances of two patients seeking medical treatment by providing them necessary medical care and treatment free of cost at SK Roy Civil Hospital. Frail and ailing Jamaluddin Choudhury, who trudged a long way, with a flicker of hope of getting medical treatment for lung disease, turned euphoric when the Deputy Commissioner directed the Joint Director, Health Services for his immediate medical treatment free of cost.
Altogether 19 numbers of petitions were received from the public, up from 14 it received on the first PGR Day.
Meanwhile, following inquiry into alleged construction of an RCC structure on National Highway in Narayanpur Part III on a petition submitted by Nekibur Rahman Borbhuiya in the last PGR Day, it was found that the complaint filed was genuine. Deputy Commissioner Khan ordered Circle Office, Hailakandi to remove the encroachment on NH by demolishing the structure.
Another positive outcome that emerged from the last PGR Day was that retired employee, Uma Shankar Dutta, who had to wait for months together to get his pension due to lackadaisical attitude of some employees of Sub Registrar Office here, finally drew his pension benefits following strict directive from the Deputy Commissioner to redress his grievances without further delay.
Journalist Nilotpol Deb succinctly puts it: “PGR Day has ignited hopes aplenty, bringing in cheers to the aam aadmi, thanks to the initiative of new Deputy Commissioner Adil Khan for putting in place a mechanism for redressing public grievances in a systematic and institutional manner,”
