District authorities have decided to continue with the open-house meeting project despite official apathy and reports of violence from three villages during the first few meetings between district officials and the villagers.
The district magistrate, Kanpur, Mukesh Kumar Meshram, has ordered video recording of each meeting to keep track of officers? attendance at these meetings. The DM has also warned of strict action against officials who fail to attend the public meetings. He said in view of the violence witnessed at some places, district teams have been instructed to take adequate police force with them to meetings.
Recently, six district officials were suspended and 41 were served showcause notices for failing to attend the open-house public meetings. The objective of the open-house meetings, which started from August 16, is to inform the residents about the development works undertaken in their villages in the last five years and collect their feedback. Before panchayat elections, the district administration aims to hold such public meetings in all 10 blocks of Kanpur district. During one such meeting at Anooppurva village under Bilhaur block on Thursday, villagers thrashed and chased away Panchayat Secretary Chandra Prakash from the village. On a complaint filed by Prakash at Bilhaur police station, a case under the charges of disrupting law and order and interrupting in official work has been registered against six villagers.
In another such meeting at Chatepurva village under Ghatampur block, the residents of the area, who were annoyed by the slow rate of development, had a minor altercation with district officials. Similar incident was also witnessed at Mahadeva village under Bilhaur block, where the annoyed villagers damaged the documents carried by district officials.
Meshram, said, ?As open-house meetings are being held for the first time in the district, there has been some reluctance from both sides.? He said violence is reported from those villages where development projects have not been carried out as per the expectations. ?Initially, village panchayat officials and development officials were against the idea of holding such meetings as they were scared to face people,? he said and added: ?But the district administration wants a genuine feedback and so all village panchayat officials, development officials and village chiefs have been instructed to remain present at the meetings.?