Mass contact programme an effort to resolve problems: Chandy

The third edition of much popular Mass Contact Programme (MCP) of Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy began here today with the Congress leader asserting that the programme was a coordinated effort of government officials and elected representatives to resolve problems faced by the people.
Thousands of people, including several old persons and women, from the district reached the Central stadium, the venue of the programme, in the early morning itself to present their cases before the chief minister.
Inaugurating the programme, Chandy said some of the present laws and norms created hindrance to resolve genuine issues of people. "The officials are being blamed for this", he said.

"Genuine issues of people will be resolved by amending the existing laws and norms if needed", he said.
Government amended certain laws and rules on the basis complaints received at the last MCP, he said.
"Several petitions of this type were received which was discussed by the Cabinet in detail and certain amendments were brought to the laws to provide relief to the people", he said.

Several changes were made in this year's MCP as certain drawbacks were pointed out in the conduct of the previous phase of the programme. The main issue pointed out was the difficulty in getting ambulances and other vehicles to patients who wanted to attend the MCP to avail financial help for treatment.

Considering their difficulties, it was decided that such persons need not come to the venue of MCP. "Their petitions will be taken up by officials and they will go to their homes and attend their issues", he said, adding, action has already been taken on most of the petitions received even before the start of the programme.
At Thiruvananthapuram a total of 16,253 petitions have been received out of which 15,810 have already been attended. The petitions have been checked and forwarded to departments concerned.
On petitions received for assistance from Chief Minister's Relief Fund, he said out of the 5,784 petitions, 5,567 have been resolved. Amounts due to them would be transferred to their accounts today itself, he said.