'Administration has to be welfare-oriented'

In an attempt to refurbish the image of the three-year-old scam hit BJP government, Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda on Monday urged the bureaucracy to make administration citizen welfare oriented and ensure transparency in tenders and procurements. Into the second month in office, Gowda held a meeting with Regional Commissioners, District Deputy Commissioners and CEOs of Panchayats to seek cooperation to tone up administration and ensuring governance reaches the doorsteps of the people.

At the meeting, attended by most of his ministerial colleagues, Chief Secretary S V Ranganath and other top officials, Gowda sent out a clear warning to officials that his government would not tolerate inefficiency.

Further, he said, he has already introduced a 15-day deadline in his office to clear files and wanted his ministers and officials to adopt the same norm to cut down red tapism and corruption in administration.

Gowda regretted that ‘Jana Spandana’, a peoples’ contact programme launched during his predecessor B S Yeddyurappa government’s tenure has come to a grinding halt and wanted officials to re-start it programme.

He said the government will soon launch “swagath”, a e-governance initiative to tone up the administration. Gowda said there are lot of lacunae in maintenance of land records and asked officials to be cautious in dealing with land grants and land record matters.