TEAM HERALD
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MARGAO: District Collector N D Agrawal’s direct interaction with remote villagers from the district via video conferencing got underway on Friday, with the Collector attending to as many as 24 complaints – the largest number coming from Dharbandora taluka.
As the people aired their complaints from the talukas headquarters, Agrawal personally called officials from non-revenue departments such as tourism, power, PWD for the status.
“This is just the beginning. We will fine tune the system as months pass by. Since I received more number of complaints from non-revenue departments, I intend calling senior officials representing these departments to attend the weekly exercise”, Agrawal said.
Though only 24 complaints were aired on first day of the weekly Friday exercise, Agrawal said what is important is the redressal system.
“People will repose faith in the system only if their complaints are redressed. We will lay more stress on the redressal system”, he reassured.
There was no complaint from the Canacona taluka headquarters, but a person complained that the Tourism Department has given NOC for a shack at Palolem in a tenanted property. Agrawal immediately called up Tourism Director Nikhil Dessai to find out the status of the complaint.
The highest number of complaints came from Dharbandora taluka headquarters, with one of the village Sarpanch demanding to know the status of a balwadi, while demanding a bus stop, road widening in his village. Given that Dharbandora Mamlatdar office faced frequent power disruptions, the Collector directed the Quepem Mamlatdar to dispatch an UPS to Dharbandora and promised to procure UPS system for use at the taluka headquarters to ensure hassle-free interactions.
While citizens from South Goa need not now personally come to the District Collector with their grievances, people from Salcete can personally see the Collector on Fridays in his office during the exercise between 10 am to 1 pm.
