The Times of India             19.08.2013

Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation's citizen helpline gets 400 calls in three days

PUNE: People can now benefit from a helpline service started by the PimpriChinchwad Municipal Corporation on August 15.

Municipal commissioner Shrikar Pardeshi said the citizens can call on the number 8888006666 to get information about municipal services, as well as documents they need to submit to avail of any service. The civic administration has uploaded information about the departments and printed a booklet giving details about each.

The municipal corporation has called this system SARATHI - System of Assisting Residents And Tourists through helpline information. The helpline service was inaugurated by deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar on August 15.

Pardeshi said the state government has implemented the Maharashtra Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act, 1949, wherein each civic department has to give information about its functioning. Citizens face hassles and have to repeatedly visit the civic departments for completing their work. Hence, the civic administration has decided to operate a helpline which will work like a call centre.

At least 400 calls have been received at the SARATHI call centre so far. One of the complainants, who called up on August 15 to report low water pressure for the last several days, said, "My call was taken promptly. I was told that I will receive an SMS, which I got. I was also told that I will get constant updates on what is being done about my complaint. But till Sunday, I have got no updates."

Another complainant said that he did receive a response from the concerned department but the problem is yet to be resolved.