Chandy bags UN award for mass contact programme

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has won the prestigious United Nations Public Service Award for his mass contact programme initiative, an official release said Wednesday.

The Kerala chief minister bagged the first place in the category 'Preventing and Combating Corruption in the Public Service' from the Asia and Pacific region. The second place was bagged by South Korea's Seoul Metropolitan Infrastructure Headquarters.

Chandy first launched the mass contact programme when he became the chief minister of Kerala in 2004. Under the programme, he travelled to all the 14 districts in the state to listen to the complaints of people relating to governance issues.

At several places, he was seen listening to people's complaints for more than 18 hours at a stretch.

Chandy received the UN award for the mass contact programme which he conducted in 2011 after becoming the chief minister for the second time.

The highlight of this programme was that the problems of the people could be directly communicated to the chief minister without any intermediary.

A total of 5.5 lakh petitions were received in 2011, of which three lakh were resolved. Financial assistance worth Rs.22.68 crore was provided to the people during the programme.

After the programme got over, The chief minister returned to each district to conduct review meetings with officials.

The UN Public Service Awards are given in five categories -- Preventing and Combating Corruption in the Public Service; Improving the Delivery of Public Services; Fostering participation in public policy decision making through innovative mechanisms; Promoting Whole-of-Government Approaches in the Information Age; and Promoting Gender-Responsive Delivery of Public Services.

The award is usually given to institutions or countries for the services they render in various categories.

This year's awards ceremony will be held in Bahrain during the United Nations Public Service Forum meeting June 24-27. Chandy will receive the award from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at a ceremony June 27.