Senior Odisha babus are going to have a field day after being handed out an odd job by the government. The State Government has assigned 30 senior IAS officers with 30 districts and asked them to spend one night in the allotted district before March end. This is not all. These bureaucrats have also to have at least one meal a day (on payment basis) in either an ST/SC Hostel or Mid-Day Meal in schools or in an Aahar Kendra or in an orphanage to check the quality of food and the ambience.
The order asks these senior bureaucrats to visit the allotted district once in the two months for at least two days and furnish their major findings after each visit to the Chief Secretary.
A circular to this effect was issued recently to all Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, Secretaries and Directors by Development Commissioner Anu Garg. It has been done to ensure government welfare schemes and programmes reach grassroots level.
These officers are also expected to plan at least a two-day programme to visit the allotted district once in the two months and spend one night in District/ Sub-divisional headquarters. They are supposed to supervise the implementation of important Government schemes/ programmes so that public services are delivered effectively to the common people. They have the freedom to randomly select the areas for visit within the district, including the inaccessible and tribal dominated areas.
According to Garg, these officers may visit at least one Gram Panchayat and assess the level of saturation in the coverage of various development and welfare programmes of the Government for basic facilities in that particular Gram Panchayat.
Officers have been asked to interact with the members of the public from different walks of life, specifically patients in PHC/ CHC or hospitals/ beneficiaries in AWCs/ tribal girls in schools and hostels among others.
As per the circular, the officer will hold a meeting with all District Level Officers in the presence of Collector to share the observations made during the field visit after reviewing functioning of all schemes.
