HYDERABAD: Praja Patham, the programme launched by Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, to identify and solve the problems faced by people, continued for the seventh day all over the State but amidst protests and lukewarm response from elected representatives.

Reports received here suggested that the elected representatives as well as officials undertook padayatras in panchayats and wards of towns as a mere formality without much seriousness.

Several MPs stayed away as if indicating that the programme was not meant for them, while the number of even Congress MLAs who took part, could not go beyond 40-50 a day through the week. Dr. Reddy himself covered four districts so far -- Krishna, Warangal, Kadapa and Mahabubnagar.

Empty pots

Affected by lack of drinking water, power cuts and delay in completing the houses taken up under Indiramma, villagers received the visiting teams with protests/gheraos at a number of places. Women greeted them with empty pots. The feedback is that the teams left them high and dry, unable to offer on-the-spot solutions to the problems highlighted.

Summing up the results so far, the Government, however, claimed success of the programme. Reeling out statistics, an official note here said 20 cases of atrocities were reported during the programme so far.

This showed that the desired level of focus was given to welfare of SCs and STs. In all, 4,685 panchayats/municipal wards were covered by April 18, the fifth day. It was ascertained that 80 per cent of the people in villages knew the existence of "sheep insurance scheme" --indicative of the success of the efforts made to create awareness about the scheme. Facilities at 987 out of 860 SC/ST hostels were found to be sub-standard.

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