The Hindu : Karnataka News : Officers asked to be proactive in problem-solving

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 29, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Officers asked to be proactive in problem-solving

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, SEPT. 28. As the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition Government in the State touched the four-month milestone on Tuesday, it was the turn of the district officers and administration to be told to pull up their socks and make the Government look good. "Although I am saying that you must ignore the media reports of a slumbering administration, and I know that we have achieved much in the last four months, I would like you to be proactive in the problem-solving department", the Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh, said.

Addressing the officials at the inaugural session, Mr. Dharam Singh told them lethargy, desktop administration and shirking responsibility should be given up and a new attitude of being responsive and responsible must be rung in.

He claimed credit for solving the festering Common Entrance Test and the issue of admissions to professional colleges, for staving off the simmering Cauvery waters problem that almost threatened to boil over, apart from the ticklish issue with Andhra Pradesh over Alamatti Dam waters, and more recently, the cases against the Bharatiya Janata Party leader, Uma Bharti.

The Union Government's commitment to provide Rs. 2,500 crores infrastructure projects for the State, with many of them for Bangalore, had just been announced, and the Centre was also coming out with a law to make admissions to professional colleges uniform all over the country, he added.

Infrastructure lauded

Contrary to media reports, Bangalore's infrastructure was much appreciated by visiting foreign dignitaries, who were impressed enough to promise investment, and neither infotech or biotech "is going anywhere out of Bangalore," he said. In all this, the officers appeared to be abdicating their responsibility in spreading the good news and reassuring the people that the administration was not in slumber, Mr. Dharam Singh said. "You could have demonstrated this during the Ganesha festival. There were many skirmishes and incidents of violence, which could have been handled better. We are doing our best, but you are the people on the field and you must pull your weight," he said.

`Lead by example'

Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister, asked the officers to lead by example. "I am aware that there are some superintendents of police who have not visited even one police station in their jurisdiction," he said, adding that even after the Government banned on-line lottery the problem persisted with many in the rural areas falling prey to the temptations offered by lottery schemes of other States.

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