Karnataka - Hassan   

Lokayukta receives petitions from people

Staff Correspondent

Complaints pertained mostly to Revenue and Police departments

HASSAN: The visit of the Lokayukta, Santosh Hegde, to Hassan on Wednesday was a different experience for the people and authorities, in view of their experience with his predecessor, N. Venkatachala.

Mr. Hegde received more than 100 petitions from the people till late in evening and directed the authorities concerned to redress the complaints.

However, unlike his predecessor, he did not take authorities to task or admonish them in public for lapses.

Most of the complaints received pertained to the Revenue and Police departments. Sanctioning of Ashraya houses, harassment by the Urban Development Authority and the City Municipal Council and failure to waive loans by cooperative banks were some of the complaints.

Many people complained that despite complaints to district in-charge Minister H.D. Revanna and Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, the authorities were apathetic to their problems.

Mr. Hegde told the authorities to attend to all the complaints in the next two months. If they failed to do so, their names would be sent to the Government for disciplinary action.

Mr. Hegde expressed anger over bad maintenance of city roads.

Later, addressing presspersons, Mr. Hegde said there were limitations to the Lokayukta, as it was a fact-finding body and had no power to prosecute.

The aim of the institution was to identify faults of the administration and help the Government in extending good governance. Although it was not an anti-corruption body, it could act in that capacity.

He noted that the Lokayukta could not conduct raids on its own, as the power to conduct raids was with the police. He said both the Lokayukta and the Upa Lokayukta would work together.

He was considering a proposal to post details of assets of senior officials on the Net if the Government provided the infrastructure to do so.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Sakleshpur farmers seek compensation for crop loss
Lokayukta receives petitions from people

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu