Jan Samvaad cell gets 200 complaints a day

RANCHI: Ratu road resident Pratima Gupta had lost all hopes of getting a widow pension for which she had applied in 2006. Her husband, Rajendra Prasad Gupta, a tea seller had died in 2002, leaving behind four kids and a wife. Her application remained stuck in bureaucratic labyrinth for nine long years till May 27, 2015.
It was on May 28, 2015 that she registered her complaint with the CM Jan Samvaad Kendra on the toll-free number 181 and within 24 hours got a call from the SDO office, where she was handed over the pension passbook.From June onwards, she will receive Rs 600 per month.
Abdul Ansari of Churi village in Khelari lodged his complaint with the same number only to see if it worked. The hand pump in his village had been lying without repair for more than a year. Ansari called up 181 to register his grievance on May 18, 2015 and got it repaired within 15 days. An elated Ansari beamed, “CM Jan Samvaad actually works.”
The idea behind opening the centre was to receive complaints from common people, engage a battery of young employees to resolve the pending issues and forward them to the departments concerned so that prompt action was taken. The idea clicked and different departments started getting complaints in bulk.
A K Pandey, director of the information and public relations department, who has been heading the complaint cell said they were not expecting such a steady stream of complaints when the project was initiated behind the curtains. “It was officially inaugurated by chief minister Raghubar Das on May 1 and by that time the cell was fully operational. It was not just receiving complaints, but had successfully redressed many of them,” he said.
The IPRD soon organized an orientation for those engaged in the cell to handle the complaints efficiently. On an average, the cell receives more than 200 complaints every day, which are documented, sorted and forwarded to the departments concerned.
The success of the scheme lies in the approach adopted by the CM. Das holds Jan Samvaad camps in different districts and expects his cabinet colleagues to follow suit. In these camps, he carries with him the bunch of complaints obtained through phone at the Jan Samvaad headquarters in Ranchi of the district where the camp is underway.