Civic body revives App-based grievance redress mechanism
The Hindu
:
In an effort to increase the contribution of citizens in improving the cleanliness of the city, the Tiruchi City Corporation has revived the WhatsApp grievances redressal mechanism.
It was with a view to addressing the complaints within 24 hours that the Corporation introduced a WhatsApp grievances redressal mechanism about six years ago. Later, it adopted the Swatchhta App, an exclusive App designed by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) to enable the citizens to post civic complaints. Since the extent of usage of the Swatchhta App attracted marks for the national level clean city rankings, the Corporation authorities paid attention to solve the complaints within a day.
The popularity eventually faded away in due course. The mechanism has once been revived now. The civic body has assigned a team to monitor the dashboard of the Swatchhta App, which is available on Google play store. As and when the team receives the complaints on the App they will be redirected or forwarded to the officers or departments concerned. They will have to visit the spots to study the nature of the complaints. If the complaints are related to the flowing of sewage on roads, bursting of water pipes, or the non-removal of garbage, action will be taken immediately. After solving the issues, the field officials will in turn post the action taken pictures on the App.
R. Vaithinathan, Commissioner, Tiruchi Corporation, told The Hindu that it was aimed at maximising the advantages of technology. It had received good response. A dedicated team had been assigned to monitor the receipt of complaints by the citizens online.
“We receive 60 to 70 complaints daily. We solve most of the complaints except complaints that require long-term solutions. It will certainly improve the cleanliness of the city to an extent,” Mr. Vaithinathan says, who makes frequent surprise visits to the wards, Central Bus Stand and others to check the presence of the sanitary workers and supervisors in their assigned areas.