now, give civic chief dope on his men

Now, give civic chief dope on his men
By: Chetan R Date: 2009-10-27 Place: Banglore




You can complain about inefficient officers, tardy progress of works and deficient services to Bharat Lal Meena when he visits your residential area or office district

Make sure you call Bharat Lal Meena, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) commissioner known for employing unusual methods to keep tabs on his staff, and tip him off on errant officials if you are not happy with any civic service.

Meena is set to don a new role from now on examiner of his officers' performance, with you as his most valuable aide in the endeavour.

Meena has undertaken an exercise to prepare his officers' progress report. He has already made his assistant executive engineers (AEEs) put down on paper the progress of various works they are in charge of. And he is asking residents to evaluate the claims made by the AEEs.

The steps taken by him are part of a larger plan to evaluate the performance of each and every officer in the BBMP.

"Officials were shocked as he distributed white sheets of paper during a review meet held recently," said Subramanya K, a civic control room official.

"He surprised them by asking them to put down on a piece of paper the progress they had made in executing works in their respective wards."

Progress report
Meena kicked off the exercise in the meeting held at the BBMP head office recently to review progress in infrastructure works across the city, including works such as laying roads, filling potholes and remodelling of storm water drains.

One of over 60 AEEs present at the meeting said the commissioner's exercise had taken them by surprise.

"We were not told about it earlier," said the officer, who requested anonymity. "The commissioner gave us blank sheets of paper and asked us to write in detail the progress each one of us had made in the recent past, for which we weren't prepared."

The AEE said that after they had done what the commissioner had asked, he dropped a bomb on them by saying their claims on works they had listed would now be evaluated by residents.

"After we were done, he asked us if we had been truthful," the AEE said. "Then he said the things we had put down would be evaluated by citizens from our respective wards."

Meena now plans to go to various civic wards in the city with the papers handed over to him by the AEEs and meet residents to take their inputs.

Doing rounds of city
The commissioner, who has made inspection of ongoing works a routine thing and constituted two teams for the purpose, one headed by him and the other by a special commissioner, will carry the 'answer papers' on his visits to various parts of the city.

He plans to go to marketplaces, residential areas and office districts of the city.

The officers' progress report will be prepared on the basis of the response people from various wards give vis-Ã -vis the statements of the officials.

The surprise initiative, which may put some officers in trouble, is aimed at increasing efficiency, as BBMP officials are often criticized for tardiness in execution of responsibilities. Besides, there are also charges of corruption from time to time.

"The cross-verification is being conducted to ensure works are completed in time," said S Khandre, public relations officer, BBMP.

"The commissioner is keen on efficiency, which has made him go for such a surprise initiative."