TS to revamp state, dist administration

Hyderabad: The Telangana government is all set to revamp the state and district administration by introducing new Revenue and Municipal Acts and also by unveiling the Telangana Urban Policy to ensure corruption-free and hassle-free civic services to the people at their doorsteps.

It was also proposed that a powerful official body will be constituted at the state and district levels. The District Chief Administrative Officer will head the district body consisting of senior officers of the district.

At the state-level, an official mechanism with important senior officers led by Chief Secretary would be set up. Additional Chief Secretaries are to be appointed under the control of Chief Secretary and they are to be given different departments.

The work of the team at the district-level under the leadership of a district-level IAS officer has to be monitored by the Chief Secretary and take decisions from time to time as needed.

On the lines of the Indian Administrative Service, the TS government also mooted the creation of the Telangana State Administrative Service for the recruitment of officials.

A day after the Lok Sabha elections held in Telangana, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Friday conducted a meeting with the top officials of the state at Pragati Bhavan here.

He said with the District Collector or the District Administrative Officer (whatever might be the nomenclature), an IAS officer as head, an effective official system has to be established consisting of important officers who would be known as Additional Collector or Additional District Administrative Officer.

The official team would be responsible for sanctioning of layouts and assessment of properties, mutations, etc. The Collector's nomenclature came into vogue when there was land revenue collection as well as collection of water cess, he explained.

"In Revenue offices, municipalities and village panchayats, people should be able to get their works done without bribing anyone.

For this, effective and strong Acts are to be formulated," KCR said, adding that "there cannot be a greater responsibility than providing better and qualitative services to the people by people's representatives and officers." People should get their work done in government offices without paying bribes, he added.

In view of increasing urbanization in Telangana, the Chief Minister said the Telangana Urban Policy need to be drafted.

The Act should be drafted in such a way that the needs of the people in urban areas will be addressed.

For GHMC (Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and HMDA (Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority), concerning the Greater Hyderabad, there is a need for a special policy. While drafting the policy, the requirements of the people for the current and future are to be taken into consideration, he said.