Mayor visits call centre, Bhopal municipal corporation staff on toes

BHOPAL: Mayor Alok Sharma visited the civic body call-centre at ISBT here on Monday. The unannounced visit left many officials wary. During his four hour long stay, Sharma received and dialled out some 40-calls.
'Mein aap ka Mahapaur bol raha hoon' was the welcome sound for many who called the centre for resolution of their civic issues. Sharma proposed the complaints to be resolved and stayed the course. Municipal body call centre was revamped and inaugurated by the Sharma, last month.Combined with smart city application, Bhopal Plus, the civic body claims to have resolved over 200 complaints per day.
During his stay, Sharma tracked vehicles and BMC staffers who went on site to resolve the situation. In a bid to impress the mayor, many of the officials went out to resolve the complaints as fast possible. In an interesting case, a complaint resolution backfired. A complaint of sewage overflowing was received from one Ram Manohar from ward 78. He stated the entire Janata quarters, mostly where gas victims reside has an overflowing nullah. The call was received by Sharma and team rushed to the complainant's house.
Manohar was not at his residence and the BMC team met with his daughter. After sweeping the street, within minutes the team reported the complaint as closed. Later, Manohar called back at the call centre and reported the matter to the BMC mayor. Manohar alleged that BMC staffers did not take care of the overflowing sewer and threatened his daughter of serving notice of eviction for non-payment of municipal taxes. Sharma, moved by the incident demanded to serve a showcause notice to the BMC staffers. "It is a serious issue. I will personally visit the location and resolve the problem," said Sharma.
Meanwhile, ward 76 residents have also protested against civic body staffers for overflowing sewage line. Prem Nagar residents alleged that complaint has not been addressed for over two months. The same location was a site for flooding during the monsoon.