Official apathy irks DC

Meeting to discuss raja kaluve encroachments turns futile

At a meeting organised at the Zilla Panchayat office, Deputy Commissioner N Prabhakar, warned the officials saying: “The prescribed forms for collecting the necessary information was sent several days in advance. Despite this, no information has been collected. This is the last and final warning. No more requests will be sent henceforth.”

In the beginning of the meeting, none of the legislators or local leaders were present in the meeting except ZP Chief Executive Officer G V Rangarao and Srinivasapura MLA Venkatashiva Reddy. TMC President Madhusudhan, Mulbagal MLA Amaresh and ZP President Srinivas arrived much later.

The DC had asked the officials to furnish details about the total number of lakes, canals, its width, extent of encroachment, necessary measures to be taken and draw out a plan of action based on this information in every taluk of the district.

Committees formed

Apart from chalking out general guidelines, no concrete discussion was carried out about protecting lakes and canals. While expressing his displeasure about it, the DC decided to form committees at the taluk and grama panchayat levels.

At the taluk-level, the tahsildhar will be president of the committee, TP executive officer will be the convener and the assistant executive engineer will be the member. The six-member committee will also comprise officials from the irrigation and watershed departments.

At the grama panchayat level, panchayat secretary will be the president, village accountant will be convener and a junior engineer will be the member. Along with them, all the village accountants in the panchayat will be members of the committee.
Both the committees have been directed to meet every week to chalk out a strategy and report back to the district administration on the progress made.

After the meeting, CEOs of all the taluk panchayats assured the DC that they would submit a report on the state of the borewell in the district by the first week of November.

Dist in-charge secretary to visit

District in-charge Secretary B S Ramprasad will be arriving in the city on Wednesday to assess the progress made by the district.

In view of this, DC N Prabhakar directed the officials to keep all the necessary information ready. “The secretary will arrive at around 9 am. There will be no programmes, instead he will be inspecting the various works being undertaken in the district,” the DC informed.