Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Dead telephone, no car spur panchayat official to protest

Rufus Daniel

Thiruvananthapuram: Visitors to the district panchayat office at Pattom, on Monday, were amused by the sight of a telephone hanging by its cord from the nameplate at the door of the office of vice-president Rufus Daniel.

Mr. Daniel, who has completed seven months in office, chose the novel method of protest after several pleas to provide him with a working telephone fell on deaf ears. Mr. Daniel, who is the ex officio chairman of the district panchayat's standing committee on finance, has supervisory powers over several key activities.

“I have to look into complaints about road works, functioning of schools, and the rural employment guarantee scheme. My work involves site inspection and liaison with the 73 grama panchayats that implement our projects costing crores of rupees. Yet, despite repeated requests, I have not been provided with a working telephone or an official car,” Mr. Daniel said.

“The telephone on my desk has been dead since I assumed office, forcing me to depend entirely on my mobile phone to make calls. The district panchayat secretary maintains that the phone line is faulty. That is hardly an excuse for the failure to provide an essential facility to a key functionary for seven months,” he said.

“Getting a car from the office pool is next to impossible. Officials plead helplessness, saying that all the cars are on duty. Even if I manage to get a car, the secretary insists that it be returned by 5 p.m., an impossible deadline given the number of site inspections to be done daily and the geographical size of the district.”

When contacted, district panchayat secretary V.S. Santhosh Kumar said the government had not allotted an official car for Mr. Daniel despite requests. “We usually give a car from the office pool whenever the vice-president makes a request, except when one of the two vehicles is taken to the workshop for repairs.”

The Deputy Mayor, who chairs the Thiruvananthapuram City Corporation's standing committee on finance, is allotted an official car, along with chairmen of other standing committees. Official sources said the facility was denied to the district panchayat because it depended entirely on government grants, unlike the Corporation which had its own funds.

Mr. Santhosh Kumar said the telephone in Mr. Daniel's room had stopped working only a few days ago following repairs to the office intercom system. “Efforts are on to get it restored,” he said.

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