Gowda aims to solve highlighted issues

BANGALORE: Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda has directed all his ministers to make special arrangements in their secretariats to attend to people’s problems that appear in the media on a daily basis. “As per the idea conceived by the chief minister, the ministers are required to attend to the people’s problems that appear in the media and immediately take action to solve them through the principal secretaries or secretaries of their respective departments. They are also required to keep the CM’s secretariat informed of the steps taken,” government sources told Express on Sunday.This move was aimed at ushering in a new work culture among the ministers and sensitising them towards the day-to-day problems of the common man, they said. “If the people come to know that their problems, highlighted by the media, have been attended to, then it is going to have a positive effect on the people’s psyche which, in turn, will enhance the government’s image and credibility. This will bridge the gap between the actual performance and the image of the performance,” an official, who is closely working with the CM in this regard, said.Explaining the nitty-gritty of the proposed arrangement, an officer said, “The ministers are required to entrust the responsibility of monitoring media reports, both in their constituencies and in the city, to one of his staff as there could be some media reports that would have appeared in the rural editions of newspapers and not in the city. Important issues will be brought to the notice of the ministers, who, in turn, will rope in the top official of his department. After each problem is attended to, a press note is to be issued explaining that the government has addressed the problem.”In order to lead by the example, Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda himself has asked his officers to work out the modalities to track media reports that highlight the people’s problems and take concrete steps to solve them at the earliest. “The chief minister’s media secretariat also will have to be sensitised to this new work load,” sources added.