Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has said that government rules that cause hurdles to speedy delivery of government services to the people will be amended on the basis of the suggestions the government received from districts where the mass contact programme was held.
Addressing the people assembled at the Chief Minister’s mass contact programme at the Jawahar Stadium here on Tuesday amid unprecedented security arrangements made in view of the Left Democratic Front’s (LDF) announcement of large-scale mobilisation of its workers to show black flags at Mr. Chandy, the Chief Minister said the government had issued 45 orders since the completion of his first phase of the district-level mass contact programme last year.
With the completion of his second district-level mass contact programme here, the government would take appropriate decisions on suggestions proposing amendments to the rules and procedures that hampered speedy delivery of government services to the common man, he announced.
The Chief Minister reached the venue of the programme by 8.30 a.m.
The incident of attack on Mr. Chandy during his earlier visit here on October 27 and the Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s announcement that it would mobilise thousands of party workers to show black flags at him during his visit here to attend the mass contact programme on Tuesday left the police with no option but to take extraordinary security arrangements to ensure incident-free conduct of the last of this year’s mass contact programme. Details of his travel and place of stay here were so confidential that only very few senior officers knew of them.
The Chief Minister who reached here by the Thiruvananthapuram-Veraval Express at 2.15 a.m. was taken to the guest room of the nearby Kannur District Police Co-operative Society building for his stay.
Though a bullet-proof car was kept ready for his conveyance, Mr. Chandy went to the venue of the programme walking. The government guest house was avoided last minute to avert any possible confrontation with LDF workers, police sources said.
ResponsibilityIn his brief inaugural speech, Mr. Chandy said his responsibility and that of officials did not end with the completion of this year’s mass contact programme.
Referring to the reservations expressed by some people about the mass contact programme, he said the restrictions and regulations in the system of governance often did not allow the officials to act effectively.
“We cannot blame officials since the conditions and rules we framed created a situation where officials cannot act effectively,” he added.
