From iron fences to open doors  Premium

Telangana CM revives Praja Vani, a weekly public grievance redressal programme, allowing unprecedented access to citizens to voice their concerns & get their issues resolved.

On a foggy Friday morning, there is a long queue of people on the road outside the once-barricaded and heavily guarded Jyotiba Phule Praja Bhavan — the Telangana CM’s official residence — in Hyderabad. In the not-so-distant past, citizens were not allowed to even stand for a few minutes in front of the imposing building on Begumpet road in the State capital. The CM camp office was seen as a symbolic barrier, creating a sense of detachment between the citizens and their government. 

However, on December 8, the new Congress-led government, opened the gates to citizens, via Praja Vani, a weekly public grievance redressal programme that had never been conducted at a Chief Ministerial level in Telangana. A. Revanth Reddy spoke to people at his official residence the day after he took oath as Telangana Chief Minister. Some in the serpentine queue had turned up as early as 5 a.m. on the first day. 

Present at the venue was Appa Rao, a differently-abled man from Jawahar Nagar locality, patiently waiting in his detachable motorised wheelchair. In the past decade, he says, he must have been shooed away from the main gate of the CM camp office at least half a dozen times. 

“I have not had a ration card since 2014 and have pursued many officers and submitted documents at many places. After waiting for a decade for resolution, I am now told my problem will be attended to. I feel hopeful but have to wait and watch. All this is new even for them,” he says. 

Walking out of the CM camp office, Srinivas Rao, donning a bright red shirt with folded sleeves and beige trousers, has a look of relief on his face. He reached Hyderabad after an overnight 195-km bus journey from Mahabubabad district. Over the past three years, he has been navigating a bureaucratic maze in vain, to sort out an issue on Dharani, a land records management website. Launched in 2020 it was billed as one of the biggest e-governance initiatives of the previous government led by the Bharat Rashtra Samithi that is credited with achieving statehood for Telangana in 2014. 

“For about 10 years, we have been dealing with a land issue in Mahabubabad. A police constable has named our land in his wife’s name on the Dharani portal and we are unable to dispute that. Every time my family members and I approached the local Mandal Revenue Officer, he would send us to different representatives. Recently, I came across the news about Praja Vani being revived and thought of trying my luck here. For once, I could directly walk into the CM office without being stopped at the entrance. They asked me about the issue and patiently listened to me before taking down my contact details. I am optimistic about a resolution, at long last,” he says. 

Unprecedented access