MC to open complaint centres

CHANDIGARH, July 19: The Municipal Corporation will open 10 complaint centres in the City for the redressal of residents' grievances. The...

CHANDIGARH, July 19: The Municipal Corporation will open 10 complaint centres in the City for the redressal of residents8217; grievances. The centres will be functional from August 15, to coincide with the Independence Day celebrations.

The centres will attend to complaints pertaining to all the functions of the MC, including water, electricity, sanitation, roads, horticulture, sewage, storm water drainage, etc. In electricity, the MC is concerned only with the working of streetlights. Officials say to begin with, there will be one complaint centre for two wards Chandigarh has 20 wards. By next year, each ward will be provided with a complaint centre.

Officials say that at present, there is no specific forum for residents to register complaints regarding the various services. As a result, they face considerable hassle trying to get the problems resolved. Even though some MC departments have made some interim arrangements for registration of complaints, these are not widely publicised and as such, the residents are not aware of them.

For strengthening its public grievance redressal system, the MC is publishing a Citizen8217;s Charter, which will be released on August 15 and will be available to residents at a nominal price.

The Charter will specify the officials responsible for the redressal of a particular complaint, the approximate time that will be taken in resolving the problem, the address where the officer concerned will be available, his or her telephone number, etc.

The Charter will also give the specific location of the complaint centres. Functionaries of each department will be present at the centres which will have specific working hours 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sub-Divisional Officers of various departments will also be available at these centres at the timings specified in the Citizens8217; Charter. Initially, complaints will have to be registered at the centre in person.

After the MC is able to get telephone connections for the centres, it will also be possible to register complaints on telephone, say officials. The complaint centre in Sector 17 will function round-the-clock.

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Officials say that on account of the lack of a specific forum for registering complaints, City residents were often addressing their grievances directly to the top-most officers of the MC and the Administration, or to the Mayor and the municipal councillors.