Residents of Karikal enclave are hopeful that the present Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry Tamilisai Soundararajan will retain the system of redressing public grievances through video-conferencing that was introduced by her predecessor Kiran Bedi.
Though an element of dissatisfaction prevails among the people over what they describe as the lack of proper follow-up action by the office of the LG, the people have no second thoughts about the sincerity of purpose with which the system was introduced.
Under the system, the public were encouraged to submit their written petitions and the LG used to scrutinise them on a weekly basis every Friday.
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“The residents very much desire resumption of the practice that got discontinued during the lockdown. The purpose behind the exercise was indeed good. But, very many issues were not taken to the proper attention of the LG by the Secretariat officials and staff. The language barrier was a main impediment. Under the new dispensation, there is a possibility for better dispensation of service from the office of the LG,” V. R. Dhanaseelane, president of Karaikal District Citizens' Welfare Association said.
There have been instances of some officials in key positions interpreting the public grievances with misleading translations during the course of video-conference sessions, he said.
According to the president of Karaikal unit of India Against Corruption S. Anandkumar, replacement of key officials and staff in the LG’s Secretariat after the change of guard was a good augury.
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“Since the LG is vested with judicial and quasi-judicial powers, the people are hopeful that the present LG will strike a strong sync with the people owing to the knowledge of local language,” Prof. Anandkumar said. All the same, there are also apprehensions among the public as to whether the present LG will handle on an even keel complaints against those who had recently switched party allegiances that had led to the downfall of the Congress government, he said.