Crying complaints

KOCHI: A major initiative by the state government to address thousands of complaints across the state is running into rough weather. Six months after the Chief Minister’s Mass Contact Programme, a majority of the complaints still remain on paper with the authorities failing to take proper action. The list of pending complaints which need to be addressed is still long.As per the reports obtained from the district collectorate, a total of 10,586 petitions have been received in the programme which was concluded in the district on November. Thirty-five percentage of the grievances is yet to be addressed. Fisheries have topped the list with only three petitions being settled. The department has received 80 complaints. Seventy-seven petitions still await redressal. The Local Self Government Department (LSGD) and the Revenue Department have got the maximum of 1,727 and 4,029 complaints respectively. The LSGD has to solve 903 complaints whereas the Revenue Department has to deal with 1,175 pending petitions. The Irrigation Department has procured 104 complaints, of which only ten were addressed.  The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has received 126 petitions. Eighty-three of them are yet to be addressed. The Kerala Water Authority too is not too far. It has 90 petitions in hand which need immediate solution.The Industries, Registration and  Survey departments have come up with a clean record by redressing all the petitions they received. The Education Department will soon follow suit as it has only one grievance to address.  The Labour Department, Pollution Control Board and Poverty Alleviation Department have also performed fairly well as they have minimum number of petitions to be solved.