The Hindu       19.02.2015   

Corporation helpline hardly helpful, say residents

At least 500 residents pick up their phones and dial 1913 — the Chennai Corporation helpline — every day, but not all their queries are answered, neither is every complaint duly looked into.

Residents say the general attitude of those who answer the phones is one of shirking responsibility and they don’t exhibit an intention to ‘close’ the complaints registered, even if only to show better numbers.

For the year 2014, the helpline and online grievance system registered 3,313 health-related complaints from Chennai residents. Data with the civic body claims all the complaints were looked into and ‘closed’.

Residents, however, are not buying the claim.

Software professional Rakesh K.S., a resident of AGS Colony, 4{+t}{+h}Main Road, Adambakkam, registered a complaint about his dusty road on the online grievance system.

“Dust is swept and collected on the street corners but the Corporation workers do not remove it. I registered a complaint online but a week later, when I checked the status on the Corporation website, the complaint was ‘closed’. The problem is yet to be resolved,” he said.

His family has spent almost Rs. 15,000 on medication for dust allergies, in the past six months, he said.

The Corporation has given the contract of manning the 1913 helpline to Vasanth Enterprises, a manpower agency. Twenty-three youngsters work in three shifts, round-the-clock. But the Corporation admits the system is not foolproof.

Last monsoon, V. Thomas, an Anna Nagar resident, had informed the Corporation about a big tree that had been uprooted and was precariously balanced in front of his house.

He received an acknowledgement of the complaint but no action was taken. After a week he found the complaint had been marked ‘completed’. “A few days later, the tree fell after a bout of rains,” he said.

A senior official said at least one in four complaints is not resolved to residents’ satisfaction.

“We have a long way to go. We are trying our best to look into every pending complaint and reopen those that residents say haven’t been looked into properly,” the Corporation official said.

“We are aware some complaints are closed even before they are addressed, which is why we do a daily review of the complaints received via the helpline and the portal,” he said.

It is ironical, perhaps, that the Chennai Corporation won an award for best e-governance among all the government departments in the State, recently.