‘ NO HELP FROM BMC’S HELPLINE’
Civic Body Claims It Attends To Online & Helpline Complaints, Residents Disagree ……….Clara Lewis | TNN
Call the number 1916 or log on to the BMC website and lodge a complaint about any civic matter. It will be attended to. That was the claim made by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in August 2007 when it announced its latest endeavour to use technology to create a better city. For most citizens, it meant the end of queues and running from pillar to post dealing with countless civic officials.
But two years down the line, and the system — according to those who have used it — does not work. While complaints are marked as ‘attended to’, the reality is a different story.
Aziz Amreliwalla, from Andheri East, had used the helpline to complain about a canteen being run in a m u n i c i p a l school. His complaint has been “attended to’’ according to the records, but the canteen continues to function.
The BMC’s claim that it has recorded a 75 per cent success rate does not ring true to many Mumbaikars. On December 3, 2008, Samir Hirani, a resident of Lokhandwala Complex in Andheri (W) had filed a complaint regarding the potholes on his back road, and was given a complaint number. He said, “All through December and January, nothing was done about the potholes. I gave it another try and filed a complaint on the same issue on February 2, 2009. When I followed up on it, I was told that the complaint had been addressed. I took pictures of the road on February 13, and the potholes are still very much there.’’ Mike Dias, a resident of Vikhroli, has also been through a similar situation. He had filed a complaint about an illegal temporary structure being converted into a permanent one at Vikhroli Station Road. Today, not only has the structure been completed, it is now in business. “I have been regularly using the helpline, but I have yet to get a quick response,’’ he said. One of the reasons for this is that the local complaint officers, who otherwise deal with residents face-to-face, until recently, had not been given access to the website’s complaints. Robin Viegas, a member of the Citizens Forum of Kalina, Santa Cruz East, explained, “In the H-East ward, for instance, the complaint officer had no access to the BMC website to see if any complaint have been lodged; so, no grievances made online have been resolved.’’
Officials manning the lines admit that there are increasing complaints about grievances not being addressed. “With the new system, officers were not allowed access to the complaints, and the responsibility fell on the shoulders of the ward officials,’’ said a BMC official. Ward officials, on their part, cite lack of time. “In the morning we visit sites, and in the afternoon there are meetings, court hearings, etc, and so there is no time to look at the complaints,’’ said officials.
LONG PROCEDURE
LONG PROCEDURE
USING THE HELPLINE
Once you dial the number (1916), a BMC employee notes down your complaint, and provides you with a number that you can use whenever you wish to know the status of the complaint. A citizen does not have to identify herself/ himself to file the complaint
GOING ONLINE
You can go to the MCGM website to file a complaint. Once you log on to the complaints page, citizens have to identify themselves and describe the nature of their problem. Take a print-out, and hit the ‘submit’ button. A complaint number will be given to you, that can be used to keep tabs on the progress
THE PROCESS
When a complaint is filed either on the helpline or website, it is forwarded to the respective ward. The number of days to attend to a complaint varies from two to 30 (see box)
* If the complaint is not attended to by the ward officer, it is electronically escalated to the deputy municipal commissioner of the zone
* If the problem is still not attended to in seven days, it goes to the chief engineer or the additional municipal commissioner
* After another seven days, it is sent to the municipal commissioner