Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar has announced a wider doorstep-governance programme covering public grievances, land records, housing sites and legal assistance, while accusing BJP leaders of attempting to remove poor voters from electoral rolls through bulk Form 7 applications.
Speaking at a Praja Seva Department programme in Piriyapatna in Mysuru district, Shivakumar said the state government would protect the voting rights of minorities, Dalits, backward classes and other citizens. He alleged that some BJP workers, leaders and supporters had submitted applications seeking deletion of names from electoral rolls, and said no voter should be removed without proper documentation.
“We have also taken up the fight to ensure that no person’s vote is deleted without proper documentation,” Shivakumar said, according to the report. He said the government had conveyed its concerns to the Election Commission and accused BJP and JD(S) leaders of trying to win elections by depriving poor people of their voting rights.
The Praja Seva Department, launched on September 5, is intended to take government services closer to residents and reduce the need for repeated visits to government offices. Shivakumar said ministers, MLAs and officials had been directed to visit every taluk twice a month, on the first and third Saturdays, and receive applications at the panchayat level.
The department has so far conducted programmes at around 620 locations and received applications from more than one lakh people, he said. Most complaints were related to the Revenue, Rural Development and Urban Development departments. Applications will be assigned numbers and acknowledged, while officials will be monitored for timely disposal. A legal aid counter will also be established alongside the grievance system to assist people facing legal hurdles.
Land and property documentation formed a significant part of the announcements. Shivakumar described the proposed Bhoomi Guarantee as the government’s sixth guarantee and said it would focus on issuing khatas and proper property documents, completing land subdivision or phodi, and resolving other land-related problems. He also directed officials to speed up applications under the Forest Rights Act and other land-rights provisions, while cautioning residents against encroachment.
The deputy chief minister said the government would issue directions to prevent illegal evictions. He also announced a plan to provide residential sites to five lakh poor people in the first phase. Deputy commissioners were directed to identify government land and create new layouts wherever necessary.
The government has raised the annual income ceiling for pension eligibility from Rs 32,000 to Rs 1.20 lakh, a change Shivakumar said had benefited around 12 lakh people whose pensions had been stopped. Karnataka has also allocated about Rs 3,500 crore under its employment guarantee programme, with residents urged to use the scheme for developing land and creating community assets.
The announcements come as Karnataka addresses drought conditions in 217 taluks. Shivakumar said the government was preparing a new Negilu Yogi programme, under which two taluks in each district would be selected to receive assistance for farmers.
He also announced Bharat Jodo Youth Associations for people aged 16 to 35, covering sports, cultural activities, environmental work and community initiatives. Each panchayat would receive Rs 10 lakh for the programme. The government is separately reviewing reports of alleged misuse of its Gruha Lakshmi and Gruha Jyothi guarantee schemes.
Shivakumar said he would travel to different constituencies twice every month to receive grievance petitions and monitor their disposal. The doorstep programme’s next administrative test will be whether applications received at panchayat-level camps are formally acknowledged and resolved within the promised monitoring system.
