Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar spent nearly three hours hearing public grievances at the Prajaseva campaign in Piriyapatna taluk of Mysuru district, where residents from Piriyapatna, Hunsur and surrounding areas submitted applications on issues including land, pensions, housing sites and welfare schemes.
The district administration organised the programme at the Piriyapatna taluk stadium. Shivakumar began personally receiving applications at 2pm and continued hearing grievances after a 15-minute break. He also directed officials to take immediate action in some cases, according to Prajavani.
Shivakumar said a separate legal centre had been established at the campaign to provide free assistance for disputes connected with courts. The centre brings legal services to the public during the grievance programme, he said, adding that people would receive free help where legal obstacles affected the resolution of their applications.
He said the campaign had been organised to take ministers, legislators and officials closer to residents rather than requiring citizens to travel repeatedly to government offices. The programme has already been held at 620 locations since it began on September 5, with more than 100,000 people submitting applications, he said.
According to the deputy chief minister, a large share of the applications concerns the revenue, rural development and urban development departments. He said the administration should extend the programme from the taluk level to gram panchayats, and that officials should visit residents to hear their problems when elected representatives are unable to do so.
The programme also included announcements on welfare eligibility and housing sites. Shivakumar said raising the income limit for pensions to ₹1.20 lakh had benefited 1.2 million people. He directed district authorities to identify government land for people without housing sites and said that, where government land was unavailable, new layouts should be developed on private land. The government has decided to provide sites to 500,000 economically disadvantaged people in the first phase, he said.
He added that the Gruha Jyothi and Gruha Lakshmi schemes were being reviewed following complaints of misuse. Other issues raised during the programme included applications under Bagair Hukum provisions, forest encroachment, unlicensed firearms and the development of village cremation grounds under the Muktidhama scheme.
Shivakumar said residents should not encroach on forest areas and that unlicensed firearms should be surrendered by November 1. He also said officials had been instructed not to evict people arbitrarily and that guidance would be provided for the disposal of legally valid applications. Ministers Eshwar Khandre and Dr Yathindra Siddaramaiah, along with MLA K. Venkatesh, attended the programme.
