In a rare gesture, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has commended the work of IAS officer Rohini Sindhuri Dasari, Deputy Commissioner of Hassan district.
In a letter dated November 7, 2017 to the IAS officer, the Chief Minister appreciated the ‘Bele Sameekshe’ (crop survey) undertaken by Ms. Dasari in a short span of time through a mobile phone app in the district.
During a meeting of deputy commissioners and zilla panchayat chief executive officers, it was revealed that Hassan district completed 61% of the crop survey in a short span of time.
Congratulating her, Mr. Siddaramaiah said, “I am happy to know that under your stewardship, the district administration has done a a laudable work with regard to collection of data regarding crop survey. I am confident that the rest of the crop survey will be completed soon.”
Mr. Siddaramaiah said owing to lack of information in land records, farmers have not been benefiting from crop insurance scheme, and minimum support price and other financial incentives of the government. The app ‘Bele Sameekshe’ linked to Aadhaar would help farmers to avail themselves of the benefits of government schemes, the Chief Minister said.
When contacted by The Hindu , Ms. Dasari, a 2009 batch IAS officer, said, “We have over 14 lakh plots in Hassan, and we completed the survey of over 11 lakh plots. As on November 7, the day the Chief Minister reviewed the progress, Hassan district had the maximum number of plots covered using the mobile app in the entire State.” She said, “All the Revenue Department staff worked from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and because of their dedication we could reach those numbers.”
Officials of the department visited the fields and uploaded data gathered with the help of the app. The survery began on October 20. The app is supported by GPS-enabled map of the plots. There is a list of over 300 crops in the app.
As the CEO of the Mandya Zilla Panchayat Ms. Dasari had successfully implemented Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and the Union government had selected her to train deputy commissioners of various States in New Delhi.
