Thousands of people thronged the venue of the mass contact programme of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy in Idukki district here on Thursday, which was the last leg of his programme in all the districts. Elaborate arrangements were made at the Government Higher Secondary School ground in connection with the programme.
The mass contact programme which began in the morning continued to late in the evening with large crowds still waiting to provide complaints at different counters set up by the various departments to ease the pressure. The Chief Minister, helped by P.T. Thomas M.P. received the complaints directly on Thursday also. Water Resources Minister P.J. Joseph and a large number of people’s representatives also attended the function.
Earlier in the morning, Mr Chandy while addressing the public said that the peoples' interactive programme aimed at the core principle that not even a single complaint should go unnoticed. It helped in reducing distance between the people, the government and the bureaucracy. In the democratic administrative system it is not a good precedence that the officials and the government machinery as administrators keeping distance from the people.
He said that the success of the mass contact programme already held in the 13 districts was the result of a joint efforts and hard work of the peoples representatives without political colour. The 5,41,000 complaints already attended created a mentality among the officials that people’s complaints should be solved as soon as a possible. They should not be held in red-tapism and be heard and solved with dedication to them.
This government is on a process to find solution to the vexed issues in Idukki district. This included land related issues, the Chief Minister said and added that the government policy on the Mullaperiyar issue was based on water to Tamil Nadu and security to the people and their property of the State. He said that the anxiety of the people regarding their security is an important factor and there was a serious move on the part of the government to ally the fears of those living downstream of the Mullaperiyar dam.
The issues related to the title deed in the district are intermingled with the livelihood of the people. There are creative move on the part of the government to solve the land issues which had not been solved all these years, he said. The Forest and revenue departments have jointly started move to provide title deed to the holders of land till four acres in cases of settlement prior to January 1,1977. In those land areas where the title deeds were given but the holders could not remit the tax had been in active consideration of the government and it was began to accept the taxes in the village offices, he said.
The programme was attended by MLAs Roshy Augustine and S. Rajendran and District Collector E. Devadasan.
