Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Friday owed all his recognition and achievements in the 55 years of his public life to the people as they are his ‘books, inspiration, knowledge, and energy.’
Addressing a meeting organised by the Delhi office of the United Nations (UN) here to felicitate him for receiving the UN Global Award for Public Service 2013 last month in Bahrain, the Chief Minister said, “in the course of my 55 years of public life, I owe a great deal of learning from ordinary people and my daily interaction with thousands of ordinary citizens. So, people are my books. People are the source of my inspiration, knowledge, and energy and source of legitimacy. I owe everything to the people, those who returned me to the legislative Assembly ever since 1970.”
“The major learning that I had from the mass-contact programme is that it is indeed possible to mobilise the positive energies within the bureaucracy and governments when there is a collective sense of responsibility and incentive for learning,” Mr. Chandy said.
Mr. Chandy was selected for the award for his mass contact programme from among the entries of 50 Asia-Pacific countries.
The programme was hailed as a unique democratic experiment during which he received 5.5 lakh petitions, of which three lakh were resolved and financial assistance worth Rs.22.68 crore distributed.
Collective efforts
Though he took efforts for initiating the programme, the success was due to the collective efforts of all stake-holders; particularly hundreds of thousands of ordinary people’s hope that the government was willing to listen and address their issues, Mr. Chandy said.
The second phase of the programme would be launched in September, he said. Among others, UN Resident Coordinator in New Delhi Lise Grant participated.
