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Thiruvananthapuram , Oct 7

THE Chief Minister, Mr A.K. Antony, has asked the District Collectors to spare no efforts to find a way out of the crisis situation in the State's plantations, some of which are lying closed, affecting the livelihood of lakhs of labourers.

Addressing the annual meeting of Collectors and heads of departments here, the Chief Minister asked them to seize the initiative to persuade estate owners to resume operations wherever they have been suspended. If the estate owners were not cooperating, the Collectors should propose to the Government viable alternative schemes through which labour interests could be protected.

The Chief Minister started off by reiterating that the State Government accorded maximum priority to good governance. The Collectors, he said, have been submitting monthly reports to the Government on the main indicators of the good governance campaign in their respective districts.

These reports have revealed varying scales of achievements by different district administrations, with some of them reporting 95 per cent success in the delivery of services within the prescribed time limits. But a predominantly large number of them could achieve success rates varying between 50 and 80 per cent only.

The Chief Minister wanted the Collectors to improve the performance on the good governance front, especially because this had become a nationally cherished goal. The Inter-State Council meeting held in Srinagar on August 27 and 28 had set up a sub-committee of six Chief Ministers under the Chairmanship of the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, to chalk out an action plan on the issue. So much so, a separate meeting of the Council is being constituted to deliberate the issue.

The Chief Minister congratulated the Collectors for managing to post record collections under the National Savings Scheme last year. He said that this year's target had been fixed at Rs 2,200 crore.

On the finance front, he said some painful decisions and well-directed and streamlined efforts had helped relieve the crisis situation to some extent. The Government expected the Collectors to give in their best to ensure maximum results through direct revenue collections, and through coordination of indirect tax avenues of sales tax, excise, forests and registration departments. Revenue recovery efforts demanded hard work and a well-delineated action plan, he said.

Similarly, there was a felt need for redirecting huge NRI remittances into bankable schemes and viable projects, which the bankers were only willing to do. Collectors, being the main district-level link between banks and the Government, should take upon themselves the task of ensuring the availability of maximum possible funds for such projects.

Poverty alleviation programme is one field that demanded focussed attention of the Collectors, Mr Antony said. They should also see to it that the lands distributed among tribal people were put to productive use and not allowed to idle. The tribal families must be able to find a sustainable source of income from the lands allocated to them.

The Chief Minister also called for enhanced attention to the `Clean Kerala' campaign, which is expected not only to go a long way in serving the cause of raised awareness on public health but also to add to the State's appeal as a tourist destination.

Land acquisition procedures with respect to many developmental schemes have been languishing. These have to be straightened out at the earliest, the Collectors were told. Similarly, a spurt in the incidence of illegal sand mining from riverbeds have caused a major ecological menace, in some instances even leading to a law and order problem.

This called for open talks with the parties concerned, following which the Collectors should come forward with their own creative suggestions that could possibly solve the problem, he added.

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