Come December, it will be four years since the State government held District Collectors and police officers’ conference, which was an annual feature not long ago.
The last such event took place between December 11 and 13, 2013, which was presided over by the then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa. At the meet, she had stressed on equitable development through inclusive growth. “The emphasis is on the word “inclusive,” she said while inaugurating the conference. After she returned to power in May 2011, she chaired the first conference in mid-November that year and the second in December 2012.
In September 2014, Jayalalithaa was eased out of office following her conviction in a corruption case. O. Panneerselvam succeeded her as Chief Minister and held the post for eight months. During this period, there was no conference. Though Jayalalithaa returned to power in May 2015, the following 16 months passed by without any meet of Collectors or police officers.
The purpose of holding conferences of Collectors and police officers is to carry out an exhaustive review of the working of the government machinery. All those who matter in the government — the Chief Secretary, the Director-General of Police and Secretaries and the heads of all departments — would be present at the meeting.
It would also provide a platform for the Collectors and the police officers at the district or zonal level to take up certain issues directly with Chief Minister and get them sorted out. A senior official says that even though it could not be said that every conference was productive, such a meet would bring to the fore issues that may not have got the attention of the top brass of the government.
Another official says that the government is indeed contemplating holding a conference of District Collectors and SPs sooner or later. It would like to wait till the end of the present spell of dengue epidemic as well as the completion of the northeast monsoon, which is expected to set in shortly and will go on till the end of December.
K. Satyagopal, Principal Secretary/Commissioner of Revenue Administration, says that in the last one year, a series of video teleconferences has been going on at his level as well as at the level of Chief Secretary on a host of matters. “Sometimes, the Chief Minister [Edappadi K. Palaniswami] himself has video conferences with Collectors [in groups].”
Some officers of the Indian Administrative Service point out that it is time for the government to effect changes among District Collectors, as some of the present Collectors have been serving in the position for five years, even though these officers have covered more than one or two districts in the given period.
