The Times of India 01.11.2013
PCMC helpline centre to have information on 16 govt services
PUNE: The residents of Pimpri Chinchwad will now get information on 16 government services, apart from the ones provided by the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) through SARATHI (System of Assisting Residents and Tourists Through Helpline Information), which was launched on August 15 this year. An updated version of the helpline service www.pcmchelpline.in was inaugurated by mayor Mohini Lande on Thursday.
The government services include marriage registration, voter registration, unique identification ( UID) number, domestic gas connections, services of the district collectorate, applying for ration card or making changes in it, Regional Transport Office (RTO), passport, food licence and services provided by Pimpri Chinchwad New Township Development Authority (PCNTDA), Maharashtra Industries Development Corporation (MIDC), Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) and stamp registration.
Municipal commissioner Shrikar Pardeshi said, "In the first and second week after the launch, the call centre had received queries from citizens about passport service, LPG connection and others. It is not the responsibility of the civic body to give information about these services but for the citizens there is only one government. Therefore, we requested PCNTDA, MIDC, RTO and other government departments and organisations to give us information about their services provided to citizens."
Pardeshi added that only a call centre is not adequate enough to reach out to the citizens and that's why the civic body launched a booklet, e-book, PDF book and mobile applications for the helpline. "A person in our country may not have internet connection but he has a mobile connection. The Right to Information (RTI) Act 2005 states that a person must not be made to go to any government office to get information instead the government offices must reach to the people to give information. So we are providing information to the people through various means,'' he added.
"If the civic body would have only started a call centre for the helpline to provide information to citizens then there would have been limitations and information would have not reached all the people. So the civic body has launched a booklet, e-book, PDF book and mobile applications for Sarathi helpline. Nowadays a person in our country may not have internet connection but he has a mobile connection. The Right To Information(RTI) Act 2005 states that a person must not be made to go to any government office to get information instead the government offices must reach to the people to give information. So we are providing information to the people through various means''.
Speaking on the occasion, Lande said the standardisation of rules by the civic administration for all departments is a good step to reduce the hardships of people. Deputy mayor Raju Misal inaugurated the mobile application of the updated helpline, Shrirang Barne, group leader of Shiv Sena corporators inaugurated the updated e-book and former mayor RS Kumar inaugurated the PDF book.
Available services
The information on government services provided by SARATHI include marriage registration, voter registration, unique identification (UID) number, domestic gas connections, services of the district collectorate, applying for ration card or making changes in it, Regional Transport Office (RTO), passport, food licence and services provided by other government offices like Pimpri Chinchwad New Township Development Authority (PCNTDA), Maharashtra Industries Development Corporation(MIDC), Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) and stamp registration.
'Nearly 155 calls received daily'
In the past two and half months, the helpline has received 7,799 calls from citizens making enquiries and 4,144 complaint calls. A total of 29,934 hits on the website were registered. The average daily number of calls received on the helpline is 155. The average daily number of hits received on the helpline website is 389. The total number of people who have utilised the helpline and its website till date is 41,877, said Uday Tekale PCMC assistant commissioner.
