By IANS,
Panaji : Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat’s video conferencing with the people Friday to redress public grievances turned out to be a damp squib with only a dozen complainants in the audience.
With the assembly elections due next year and the ruling Congress already having started activating its pre-election machinery, the video conference ‘durbars’ were meant to carry forward the Kamat government’s message of ‘aam aadmi government’ (common man’s government).
Speaking to reporters after the video conferencing, Kamat admitted that people were yet to know about the initiative and that it would click in time.
“Word is yet to spread about this initiative. Once people come to know that the chief minister is available online, they will start attending these,” Kamat said as he exited the north Goa district administration building where the tele-conference ‘durbar’ was held.
“What we aimed to do was to solve long-pending grievances of people with district administration officials and other heads of departments on the screen attending to their problems,” Kamat said.
Such initiatives would be held twice a month in Goa’s both north and south districts, he said.
“I can’t hold such hearings frequently as officers require time to comply with the directions given during video conferencing,” he added.