The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Officials ‘ignoring’ MLAs face action

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Thursday, Feb 07, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Officials ‘ignoring’ MLAs face action

M. Rajeev

Special officer to monitor representations forwarded by MPs, legislators and MLCs

Officials asked to follow protocol orders strictly
Many wings reportedly sit on representations

HYDERABAD: The State Government has decided to crack the whip on officials who are not acting on the representations submitted by MPs, MLAs and MLCs on the problems in their constituencies.

The General Administration Department has issued a circular asking the secretaries of various departments to nominate an officer of the rank of joint/deputy secretary as special officer to monitor the representations made by MPs/legislators to the Chief Minister and his Cabinet colleagues.

Directive

The secretaries had been asked to sensitise officers and staff to follow “in letter and spirit” the orders on protocol and courtesies to representatives of Parliament and the State Legislature besides keeping them informed about the latest stage of action on their requests.

Warned

“Any deviation of instructions shall be viewed seriously warranting disciplinary action against the erring officials,” the circular said. The instructions come in the light of representations made by the elected representatives that the personal staff of secretaries of some departments were not responding properly to the phone calls as well as during their personal visits to the offices.

The GAD was also unhappy that the action taken on the representations was not updated on the website enabling the members to know the status of their plea.

Privileges panel

“The officials in some departments don’t even acknowledge our presence, leave alone representations,” Congress MLA N. Manohar told The Hindu.

The matter was taken to the notice of the Privileges Committee of the Legislative Assembly which, in turn, complained that a majority of the departments had not nominated officers to monitor the representations from the elected representatives.

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