Night service for district collectors

• Collectors asked to spend three nights a week in villages
• CS for evolving a mechanism to plug performance gaps

The State Government has asked all the District Collectors to undertake "Palle Nidra" for 2-3 days a week (with night halts) to ensure that the government-sponsored programmes and schemes are implemented effectively. Chief Secretary P K Mohanty has requested all special chief secretaries, principal secretaries and secretaries to design appropriate mechanism for assessing the performance of flagship programmes and schemes every month based on key parameters to facilitate inter-district comparisons, according to sources.

The sources revealed that some of the senior officials had suggested to the Government to give ratings and rankings to top five districts that successfully implement each and every flagship programme. The district collectors have also been directed to involve all the divisional officers in the implementation of the development and welfare programmes. They were also asked to furnish a monthly summary progress report to the Chief Secretary highlighting their key achievements and best practices on various flagship programmes during the month. The State Government is planning to adopt latest communication technologies for implementation of its flagship programmes.

The government is firm on taking the flagship programmes such as Bangaru Thalli, Vaddi Leni Panta Runalu, Amma Hastham, Mana Biyyam, Sarva Siksa Abhiyan, Indiramma Housing, Direct Benefit Through Aadhaar and Rajiv Yuva Kiranalu to each and every doorstep of the poor in the State.

Disclosing this at an informal meeting with Principal Secretary, Planning, S P Tucker, and other senior officials, Mohanty said that he would hold the video conference with district collectors on second Friday of every second week and third Saturday of every third week of every month, primarily for monitoring the performance of districts in the implementation of these flagship programmes/important schemes of the government, execution of public works such as drinking water supply schemes, supply of seeds and fertilizers for farmers, roads, school buildings, primary health centres and hospitals, disaster management, etc.

The Chief Secretary, who is also chairperson of State Energy Conservation Mission, requested all the district collectors, who are also Chairmen of District Energy Conservation Committees, to specially focus on Energy Conservation & Energy Efficiency (EC&EE) programmes to inculcate the habit of conservation among power consumers. Further, the Secretary (Information Technology & Communication) has been directed to prepare customized software for monitoring all flagship programmes and create a habitations or village -wise scorecard giving a summary of progress for different departments in coordination with concerned principal secretaries.