Palamu (Bihar), Oct. 21 : District administration in Palamu in Jharkhand has recently started a novel postcard scheme to attend to the problems of local residents, especially those living in far off villages of the district.

The main objective of the postcard scheme is to establish direct contact with the public and address their problems. Both the administration and public are enthusiastic about this scheme. It is being made successful with mutual cooperation.

The initiative of the district administration is bearing results, as today a growing number of far off villages are getting linked to the administrative authorities.

These people write down their problems on postcards. The representatives of the administration routinely visit these areas and collect all such postcards and act upon them.

It was felt necessary considering the kind of problems villagers faced in reporting their grievances to the authorities. The move is hoped to establish and improve the public’s contact with the higher authorities in the district.

Jaseema Bibi, another resident, said: “We are writing to our Deputy Commissioner. We convey our problems by writing them on post cards. We are hopeful that our problems will be heard and sorted out.”

Ravinder Pal, one resident, said: “Our Deputy Commissioner goes to every village and inspects the prevailing situation on his own. Therefore, we are sending complaints through post card and we are getting benefited.”

Earlier, the communication gap between the administration and the local public used to be thoroughly exploited by the Naxalites operating in the area.

“The problems or complaints of the local people, which generally remained unheard or unattended earlier, are not only reaching the authorities but also being duly acted upon. It has instilled a new ray of hope among residents,” said Amitabh Kaushal, Deputy Commissioner of Palamu district.

Kaushal told that this (communication through post card) was being done to lessen the distance between the authorities and the people. “This is a mode of communication. This is to ensure that the voice of the people reaches the administration in the least possible expense. Generally, when a villager comes from a far off village to District headquarter he spends 100-150 rupees. Therefore, to save on time and money we have provided them with an alternative to post a postcard worth 50 paise,” he said.

Kaushal added: “We choose the villages on a priority basis. Specially, we go to remote areas. We go to each place where there is any problem. In this regard, we have visited many places till now.”

One cay say, the day is not very far off when residents of Palamu would establish a distinct definition of development for rest of the country. (ANI)