Chief secretary makes overnight village stay by collectors mandatory

While the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has swept to power at the Centre on the basis of a campaign for good governance, state chief secretary JS Saharia wants to bring in good governance by ensuring that district collectors and chief executive officers (CEOs) of zilla parishads halt overnight in villages on every second Friday and resolve issues of the citizens.

Saharia gave directions to this effect at a meeting of the collectors and zilla parishad CEOs during a video conference on Tuesday. The chief secretary addresses divisional commissioners, collectors and zilla parishad CEOs via video conferencing every Tuesday. Through this directive, the chief secretary has made overnight village stay mandatory for all collectors and CEOs.

According to sources in Saharia's office, majority of the officials have already visited rural areas and stayed in villages. During their stay, they've also understood and addressed issues facing the citizens.

An initiative of Saharia, who believes that overnight stay in villages helps in overall delivery of good governance. Saharia himself, in fact, stayed overnight in one of the villages and met villagers to address their grievances. For the first time, a chief secretary has actually stayed in a village overnight to understand problems of people, say officials.

"The chief secretary has expressed confidence that this move will help in making the administration people-friendly besides ensuring speedy delivery of justice," said an official.