People in the city will soon be able to complain to the Mangaluru City Corporation on sanitary issues using the ‘Swachhata’ mobile app of the Union Ministry of Urban Development.
The civic body, which has been using the app on a trial basis for the past five days, is all set to launch it officially before the end of next week, sources in the health section of the corporation told The Hindu.
“Whatever the problem [is], Swachhata app will have a solution,” says a page in the app. To use the app after downloading it from Playstore, a person first needs to create a profile. He or she can then post complaints under nine titles (sections) in the app — sweeping not done, garbage vehicle not arrived, bins not cleared, garbage dump, public toilet blockage, no electricity in public toilets, no water supply in public toilets, public toilet not cleaned, and dead animals (found).
The app will be a platform for citizens to report issues related to cleanliness track the progress on their resolution, sources said.
For example, if sweeping is not done in a particular area, the app user will need to click a photograph of the piled up trash. He or she can then ‘submit’ it through the app and enter a landmark on the road. The app will generate a complaint number and send it to the user. The issue will be addressed by the health section within 12 working hours, sources said.
Complaints posted in the app will be displayed in the server of the corporation. They will be referred to either sanitary inspectors or assistant sanitary inspectors, who will need to sort out the matter, click a photograph after the clean-up and post it for the complainant to see.
According to sources, the app has not been made operational yet because of a few technical issues related to linking and display of complaints. Ministry officials have been informed of this, and once the glitches are resolved, the app will go live, sources said.
