Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel is on a whirlwind tour of the State. He is leading the Bhent-Mulaqat Abhiyan (Meet-and-Greet campaign), a unique initiative by the Bhupesh Baghel-led Chhattisgarh government that entails the chief minister meeting general public of the State and taking their feedback on various government schemes. In a first, Chief Minister has decided to visit all 90 assembly constituencies aiming to ensure that all the welfare schemes reach all people in the villages.

“Sir, my name is Bhanupriya Acharya. I study in 10th standard. But as I am visually impaired, I am unable to read, and as my father’s financial condition is not good, I do not have access to learning resources,” a visually-impaired girl told the chief minister at the Bhent-Mulaqat programme organised in Bakavand of Bastar district. Moved by her plea, Mr Baghel immediately sanctioned Rs 1.5 lakh, asking her to buy a smartphone and a tape recorder.

It is a revolutionary step that will enable Mr Baghel to connect directly with the people, especially those living in the hinterland, and resolve their grievances. The State government believes that launching public welfare schemes is only half the battle won. What people expect from good governance is a thorough implementation of these schemes and the on-the-spot solution to their problems. The chief minister’s campaign addresses all these concerns.

Seeking feedback
During his visit, the chief Minister is enquiring whether people are getting benefits of the government schemes, giving special emphasis on ration cards and flagship schemes, like Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana and Godhan Nyay Yojana. Besides, at every stop, he has been making several announcements in public interest, from road construction to granting funds for various development works.

“I was not able to interact with people for a long time due to COVID-19 pandemic. Feedback of people is important. What’s more important is, we are trying to take government at people’s doorstep, and how easy this campaign has made for an individual to interact with chief minister directly, sharing their grievances or feedback about the working of State government,” notes the chief minister.

A people-centric move
The vision of this special enterprise is to gain better insight into the implementation of government schemes and evaluate what needs to be done to remedy lapses at the ground level. These lapses can be due to inefficient execution of instructions from the government or mere negligence of officers. The campaign will help the State government in coming up with better schemes in the future and also identify scope for improvement, if any. All this will result in seamless functioning of the government towards welfare and prosperity of people.

The Bhent-Mulaqat programme allows direct interaction between the chief minister and the public. Such a close encounter has many advantages. The head of the government can understand the pain points of people.

The initiative provides an opportunity for the government to work on improving the schemes so that they cater to specific needs of the public. It also helps in providing quick solutions to grievances. When people see the government reaching out to them to solve their problems, they begin to trust the government. This encourages open conversations between the government and the citizens. In short, Mr Baghel’s time-tested initiative is making an earnest attempt to usher in grassroots governance.