In a major step towards streamlining district administrations and reducing the burden of official work on deputy commissioners, the State government has reduced the number of committees headed by DCs from 99 to 36.
A gazette notification in this regard was issued on April 24, 2014. The government has handed over the responsibility of heading 24 committees to additional deputy commissioners and 33 committees to zilla panchayat chief executive officers (CEOs). The rest of the committees, however, will continue to be headed by deputy commissioners, the notification said.
The decision to reduce the workload of DCs was taken at a meeting chaired by the then Chief Minister on January 5, 2012 based on the suggestions given by deputy commissioners and a report submitted by the Administrative Training Institute, Mysore.
Apart from committees on general subjects, deputy commissioners used to head 28 district-level committees till now. In order to give more responsibilities to zilla panchayat CEOs and additional deputy commissioners, the government divested powers of the deputy commissioners from 57 committees.
K. Jairaj, who recently retired as the Additional Chief Secretary to the State government, welcomed the decision. He said, “Now they (DCs) can focus on priority areas.” Deputy commissioners were chairing meetings of two to three committees every day and were unable to focus on matters relating to administration, Mr. Jairaj said.
According to the notification, deputy commissioners will continue to head committees on subjects related to Revenue Department, Independence Day, Republic Day, Karnataka Rajyotsava, district peace, Ambedkar Jayanti, Prime Minister’s 15-point programme, Red Cross, sand extraction and transportation, tourism development, transport authorities and other important subjects.
Additional deputy commissioners will head several district-level committees, and committees on subjects related to urban development, Consumers Day, health, AIDS control, child labour, Basava Jayanti, Mahaveer Jayanti, Kanaka Jayanti, road safety, sports, and agriculture.
The CEOs will head committees related to Morarji Desai school, Stree Shakti, dowry, library, common entrance test, SSLC examination, PUC examination, environment pollution, family planning, skill development, Devaraj Urs Jayanti, remand home, rehabilitation, malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS control, and Pulse Polio programme.
