Putting in place a “public grievance-redressal system with a human touch” will be the top priority of senior IAS officer K. Ratna Prabha, who took charge as the new Chief Secretary of Karnataka on Thursday.
In her maiden press conference after taking charge, she Ms. Ratna Prabha said: “I believe there has to be a human touch to the system of redressing people’s grievances.” She stressed the need for bureaucracy to redress the grievances of people by taking up programmes similar to that of the Chief Minister’s Janata Darshan. “Solving the problems of the people and redressing their grievances is one area which gives me a lot of satisfaction,” she said.
Acknowledging that she was shouldering a huge responsibility, she said: “It is my duty and responsibility to stand up to the expectations, and I will never let the government down. This is my promise to the government and people of Karnataka.” She expressed confidence that women’s security would see a positive change in the State with two women holding the top administrative posts — Chief Secretary and the DG&IGP. She said she would discuss the issue with DG & IGP Neelamani N. Raju.
She also made it clear that she would continue to lay emphasis on encouraging women entrepreneurship and also assured women entrepreneurs that the ongoing project of setting up women’s tech parks was completed within two months.
On whether she would find the going tough in terms of work load and responsibilities as the State heads towards Assembly elections are nearing, early next year, she said: “I like to be overburdened. In fact, I have never got a light post in my career. I will handle any additional workload with proper time management. At the most, my sleeping hours may reduce.”
To another query, she said that she would show what was the positive power of a Chief Secretary.
She became emotional while referring to the warmth of the people, who had gathered to greet her.
“A large number of people from different walks of life and different places have come to greet me on the occasion of taking over the new responsibility. They have given me so much love. In fact, they were all waiting for me to become the Chief Secretary,” she said, while admitting that she is an emotional person.
