Maharashtra CM reaches out to 22 districts

Mumbai: Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has held meetings with people’s representatives and officials from 22 districts over the last six days regarding the drought situation. He used the mobile phone’s ‘audio bridge’ technology to hold talks with 27,449 village-level elected representatives and officials from 139 drought-hit talukas across 22 districts over the drought situation.

A statement from the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said if technology is used effectively, it can result in expeditious governance to resolve the issues concerning the people.

“In the last six days, Mr Fadnavis has held talks directly with 884 sarpanchs through the Samvad Setu (Dialogue Bridge) initiative. The sarpanchs have shared their problems freely with him,” the statement said.

Those sarpanchs, who could not participate, have availed the WhatsApp numbers, officials said. “17 WhatsApp numbers have been given to these 22 districts which have received 4,451 complaints till May 13, 2019 from the sarpanchs and citizens. Out of these, 2359 complaints have been directly related to drought,” the official added.

The state has adopted a peculiar system to resolve these complaints and issues. An Excel sheet has been prepared for each district separately where information regarding the complaints has been recorded. Actions taken by the local administration have been recorded district-wise and the report has been submitted to the chief minister’s office (CMO). An official said that a separate system has been set up in the CMO to tackle each complaint related to drought.

In the last six days, Mr Fadnavis has reached out to 139 talukas in 22 districts through the Samvad Setu. These 22 districts include Aurangabad, Nanded, Jalna, Osmanabad, Beed, Parbhani, Ahmednagar, Nashik, Dhule, Jalgaon, Buldhana, Satara, Pune, Sangli, Solapur, Chandrapur, Amravati, Yavatmal, Hingoli, Wardha, Nagpur, and Washim.