Getting in touch with officials still a challenge

Residents say that contacting civic officials during the monsoon is an arduous task with their numbers remaining unreachable or the calls disconnecting midway. —photo for representational purpose only

While trying to get in touch with civic body officials, on a normal day, seems like a strenuous task for most residents across the city, the monsoon only adds to their woes.

While officials of civic agencies — including the Chennai Corporation and Metrowater — point to poor network connectivity as the main cause of the problem, residents say that even after several attempts, if a call goes through to a civic agency, it abruptly disconnects midway.

R. Arun, a resident of Bala Murugan Nagar, Velachery, said that on any given day of the year, if residents wanted to complain about issues, such as garbage clearance or street light rectification, they were never able to get in touch with the civic officers in charge.

For the most part, he said, the mobile numbers of these officials remain ‘unreachable’.

CUG networks

For residents of Maduravoyal and Mudichur the issue remains the same. Trying to reaching a tahsildar, or an corporation official is near impossible, they say, claiming that all the officials use the Closed User Group (CUG) network connections of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).

B. Varadarajan, a resident of Maduravoyal, said the poor connectivity made it hard to connect to helplines during an emergency. Sometimes, officials respond only after a few hours after the call was made, he added.

For Mudichur residents, poor mobile connectivity had delayed rescue operations. “During the floods, it took over three hours to get in touch with an official and seek a rescue boat. As there was no signal through my network, I had to speak from two other mobile phones with different networks to contact them,” said G. Selvakumari of Mudichur.

A senior official of the Chennai Corporation, who lives in Adyar, said that his official mobile with the BSNL connection remained unreachable, as a result of which he was forced to use his personal mobile for communicate with his colleagues and the public.

‘No tower’

When contacted, BSNL officials claimed that the absence of a tower between Madhya Kailash and Raj Bhavan was the reason for the call drops and poor connectivity in the area.

However, officials of the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco), who also have CUG connections, point out that they do not have any such issues within their official network and have always been accessible to the public.