K. Chandrasekhar Rao to empower officials in districts

Hyderabad: The government is contemplating creating an administrative service for the state along the lines of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) besides passing the new legislation covering the Revenue Act and municipal departments, and drafting the Telangana Urban Policy.

Speaking at a high-level review meeting at the Pragathi Bhavan on Friday, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao instructed the officers that corruption-free and hassle-free services must be provided to the people.

Mr Rao is contemplating changing the nomenclature of the collector to ‘district administrative officer’. He pointed out that the term collector came into vogue when land revenue and water cess was being collected.

He suggested that the Telangana Urban Policy needed to be drafted keeping in view the need of the developing urban areas. “I’ve been receiving complaints from many people stating that they have not been able to get their work done in government offices unless they offered to bribe the officials and they are blaming the government for it. Why should the government be cursed like this? Why should people have to bribe the officials? We need a corruption-free system.”

He said that there needs to come a day when people can get their work done without having to bribe the staff at government offices and that for that to happen, there need to be strong laws.

Mr Rao said that due to the irresponsibility of political parties, the local self-government system had degenerated and that it has to be revived if we want effective working administrative divisions.

Providing a context for his proposals, Mr Rao said, “With the creation of new districts, divisions, mandals, municipalities, and village panchayats, we have brought administrative reforms. The objective of these reforms will be achieved only when these offices serve the people without any scope for corruption.”

Stressing the need for having a powerful official body at the district level, Mr Rao said that the official body, headed by the collector (district administrative officer), would be allocated certain departments that it would handle exclusively and that it would be empowered to initiate action against its corrupt staff. He added that the roles and responsibilities of the officials should be clearly delineated.

He said while creating a ‘Telangana state Administrative Service’ along the lines of the Indian Administrative Service, they must create an effective administrative system in tune with the conditions existing in the state.”