The Hindu : Now, grievance redress just a call away

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 18, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Now, grievance redress just a call away

By Our Special Correspondent

Hyderabad Jan. 17. The Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, has a plan to establish a unique computer system in the State for redress of public grievances through a one-call centre to which problems can be addressed "by anybody and from anywhere'' in the State.

Mr. Naidu made his "floating idea'' known to journalists after participating in the inauguration of the country's first "Cyber Grameen Project'' at Venkatachalam in Nellore district through video-conference facility at the Secretariat this morning. He said he would give his idea a shape after getting clearance from experts and, when the reporters present welcomed the plan as "very good,'' the Chief Minister announced that he was going ahead straightaway.

The "idea'' was that a single call centre to be run by a private party with a toll-free telephone would be set up for the entire State, say in Hyderabad, and the public could register their problems from anywhere. The call-centre, in turn, would pass on the grievance to mandal-level Government functionaries, out of whom 10,000 would be given cell-phones for the purpose.

Redress, he said, would be guaranteed under the system because, the Government functionary -- be it MRO or MDO -- would be required to settle the problem or give response online within a timeframe which would vary depending on the type of problem as fixed by the Government. In a way, Mr. Chandrababu Naidu said, a Citizens' Charter would be under implementation through the centralised call centre. The centre itself would be based on broadband bandwidth by which any call from anywhere within the State would be local one. And the public could also register their grievances through e-mail for which cyber cafes would be provided across villages. e-Seva centres also would be involved in the process.

The Chief Minister said Andhra Pradesh would be first State in the country and the first in the world to introduce this service standing next only to Ireland where a private agency was implementing the service giving a maximum of three hours for settling the grievance. Similarly in the State, it would be a private party which would be handling the system for delivering Government services.

Mr. Naidu was emphatic in scotching the criticism that IT served only the rich and in saying that on the contrary, it was the common man who benefited most out of this. In justification of his stand, he cited a number of examples such as e-Seva centres which were offering a number of services at one spot and the latest Cyber Grameena Project which was inaugurated today at Venkatachalam and which would offer 11 services, including banking, retail store, e-governance .

The Chief Minister said the cost under the Cyber Grameena Project and failure rate would be nil because, what was being used was a broadband bandwidth. He said, already 34 e-Seva centres were in operation in Hyderabad and some in Vijayawada and other places, and it was his plan to introduce the facility in all 117 municipalities/corporations by March- April.

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