Chandigarh administration to launch call centre for grievance redressal

The centre has been setup on the Sector 19 premises of women helpline at cost of around Rs 20 lakh and is expected to be launched by the end of this month.

Trained staff of respective departments will be deployed at the call centre which will be equipped to feed the grievances aired by the residents in the database and forward it to the concerned department for appropriate action. The system will also have the facility to recording calls, both incoming and outgoing.

Talking to Chandigarh Newsline, Danish Ashraf, joint director, food and Supplies and consumer affairs said that the centre will help in redressal of grievances and also promote various schemes of the government.

“There are large number of schemes of departments like social welfare and red cross which people are not aware of. This centre will also spread awareness about these schemes,” informed Ashraf. The call centre will operate from 9am to 5pm from Monday to Saturday.

At present, the residents are made to run from pillar-to-post for even lodging complaint at various departments. With starting of the call centre, residents will be spared of the ordeal. Estate office, which is crippled with red tape and inefficiency, is thronged by large number of people on daily basis for different work and face a lot of harassment.

For past many years, officials of the estate office have been at the receiving end of the public’s ire for poor redressal of their grievances.
Welcoming the move, Federation of Sector Welfare Associations Chandigarh (FOSWAC) chairman Blinder Singh Bittu said the residents are harassed by the officials of different departments and they were made to run from pillar-to post for availing services and lodging of complaints. “Setting up of the call centre is right step as it will strengthen the grievances redressal mechanism,” he said.