Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Sunday declared every Monday as a “No Meeting Day” to ensure the smooth conduct of weekly public grievance hearings and enable senior officials to actively participate in the process.
In an order issued by the General Administration and Public Grievance Department, Principal Secretary to Government Suresh Kumar Vashishth directed all Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, Commissioners-cum-Secretaries, heads of departments and district collectors to refrain from scheduling meetings on Mondays unless they are extremely urgent.
The order said weekly grievance hearings are being conducted at government offices every Monday in accordance with the state government’s directions. However, it had come to the government’s notice that various meetings were also being scheduled at the level of senior officials on the same day, affecting their participation in the grievance-hearing process.
“To ensure the effective participation of senior officials in the weekly grievance-hearing mechanism, Monday is hereby declared as a ‘No Meeting Day’,” the order said.
The department requested all concerned authorities to avoid holding any kind of meeting on Mondays, except in cases of extreme urgency. It also asked senior officials to ensure that similar instructions are issued to all subordinate government offices under their respective jurisdictions.
The move is aimed at allowing senior officials to devote their time to hearing public grievances and improving the responsiveness of the administration to citizens’ concerns.
Principal Secretary to Government Suresh Kumar Vashishth directed all departments, departmental heads and district collectors to treat the instruction as a matter of utmost importance.
