Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam   

Good response to `Spandana' programme

By Our Staff Reporter

VISAKHAPATNAM, JULY 19. Moved by the overwhelming response to the `Spandana' programme, the District Collector, Praveen Prakash, who was mobbed by people who made a beeline to the Collectorate, himself received petitions outside his chambers on Monday.

The petitions ranged from dowry harassment and land encroachment cases to pleas on allotment of house sites and white ration cards. The programme, which was started last month to enable the public to interact with the Collector once a week for redressal of grievances, has been drawing huge crowds.

Over 400 petitions were received on Monday, which would be forwarded to the agencies concerned for necessary action. As soon as Mr. Prakash arrived at the Collectorate around 9.30 a.m., several protesters greeted him outside the main gate. The people who gathered inside to have an audience with Mr. Prakash mobbed him.

Outside the Collectorate, dharna programmes were organised separately by the Andhra University employees demanding recall of the Vice Chancellor, Y.C. Simhadri, and the port workers for recruitment of children of the deceased employees on compassionate grounds.

The Collector told the crowds to be patient and wait in the queue if they were interested in interacting with him directly. Others who came from Nathavaram, Nakkapali and other distant places, were asked to submit petitions instead of standing in the serpentine queue.

With the receipt of the large number of written complaints and pleas, the Collector asked his aides to bring buckets and trays to carry the petitions to his chambers.

Interestingly, despite the instructions of the Collector to hold programmes on the lines of Spandana at the mandal level by the Mandal Revenue Officers, a large number of people preferred to visit the Collectorate. This showed that the mandal level programme was yet to instil confidence in rural people that their grievances would be redressed by the MROs concerned.

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