Nandapur, Jan 28:: Public grievance hearings are being conducted every Monday at the state, district, block, and panchayat levels to listen to and resolve people’s complaints. However, some intellectuals have demanded that these hearings be made more effective by providing facilities on the spot for preparing and correcting Aadhaar cards, voter IDs, ration cards, and caste certificates, as well as enabling applications for housing, pensions, and other social security schemes. They have urged the administration to make arrangements so that people can apply for inclusion in various government schemes during the grievance hearings themselves.
According to reports, through the public grievance system, block residents get the opportunity to meet district-level officials at their offices, while panchayat residents can meet block-level administrative officers at the panchayat offices. Officials are able to directly hear complaints from the public. While development-related complaints are being registered and prioritized for resolution, there is no provision to address basic documentation-related issues such as Aadhaar, ration cards, voter IDs, housing, pensions, birth and death certificates, income, caste, residence, legal heir certificates, land pattas, and applications for other government schemes.
Instead, people are advised to visit Aadhaar centres, government offices, or Common Service Centres (CSPs) located at block headquarters, which are often far from their villages. In Nandapur block and across Koraput district, which has 240 panchayats, about 80 percent of villages are located 7–8 km away from panchayat offices and 30–40 km away from block offices.
It has been requested that the state government and district and block administrations organize facilities at block and panchayat-level grievance hearings at least once a month for preparing Aadhaar, ration, and voter cards, and for submitting applications for housing, pensions, and other government schemes.
In the 23 panchayats of Nandapur block, the absence of Aadhaar cards has deprived hundreds of children, adolescents, women, men, and mentally ill persons in each panchayat from accessing ration benefits, pensions, and other government schemes. Complaints are particularly high in the Andhra border and remote panchayats such as Khubur, Chatua, Panthalung, Bilaput, Golur, Kularsingh, Nandaka, Khemunduguda, Kasandi, and Atanda.
Due to illiteracy, poor economic conditions, and the long distance from villages to block headquarters, many people are unable to enroll in government schemes. Intellectuals have stated that if the government arranges for on-the-spot preparation of identity documents and application facilities during panchayat-level grievance hearings, the initiative will become more effective and popular among the public.
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