Mysuru: Chief Minister Siddharamaiah, addressing the officers of the district before the start of the Janaspandana, programme here this morning, regretted that such mass contact programmes had become inevitable as the officers concerned do not discharge their duties to the expectations of the people. The CM who arrived in city drove straight to the Government Guest House from the Helipad and as he got ready to receive the grievances from the people, said, “It is quite some time that Janaspandana was held in Mysuru. Whenever I come to this City, people gather in large numbers with their complaints in front of my house. They would not have come to me at all, if you had responded to their problems.”

“We are both public servants. Just taking bribes alone is not corruption. It is worse if you do not attend to the people’s problems on time or delay or make them run a hundred times to get their job done, is worse form of corruption,” he said.

The public are facing problems in the Tahsildar’s Office, with the Police and the Revenue Department the most. The standard reply given by the officers is, “It does not come under our jurisdiction and pass the buck. Instead if they make extra efforts to guide the public and give them relief, the officer will have truly discharged his duty,” the CM told the officers.

Siddharamaiah was in his elements and driving home his point, he quoted a Kannada proverb, “Geddavanu Sotha, Sothavanu Satta,” (a reference to those who go to Court for justice. It means: “The one who wins loses and the one who loses is dead.”) and said that is situation, especially the farmers are facing. He asked the officers to do proper survey of the land and give the farmers sketches of the land whenever they apply, instead of harassing them.

Soon after, the address, the BEML workers came with a memorandum asking the Chief Minister to interfere immediately to save the public sector company going into private hands. He assured them that he would talk to the minister concerned.

About eight physically-challenged persons — Asgar, Jagadish, Siddappaji, Shazuddin, Mariswamy, Dilip Kumar, Venkob Rao and Gopalkrishna all running petty shops in the City bus stand appealed to the CM to solve their problem. They complained that their livelihood had been destroyed as the police and the corporation authorities were not allowing them to run their business and filed cases against them.

Siddharamaiah asked both the Police and the Corporation Commissioner to solve their problem by providing them proper places to carry out their business. If it was not possible for them to do it then he would take up the cause, he cautioned.

A middle-aged man, A.S. Shivanna from Siddharamaiahnahundi (CM’s village) who had passed SSLC, requested the CM for a Government job. The CM replied, “Not just me, even God cannot help you to get a Government job at this age. Let me see if I can fix you a job in Bannari Amman Sugar factory if you are ready to work there.”

The parents of the boy who had died in the mystery fire mishap at Shayadanahall  in Belavatta were given a cheque of               Rs. 2 lakh by the CM.

District Minister Dr H.C.Mahadevappa, Health Minister U.T. Khader, MLAs Vasu and G.T. Devegowda,  Regional Commissioner M.V. Jayanthi, DC D. Randeep, Corporation Commissioner G. Jagadeesha, MUDA Commissioner Dr. M. Mahesh, ZP CEO Shivashankar, Tahsildar T. Ramesh and other District Officers were present. The CM will hold a review meeting later in the afternoon with the officers.