By this time next week, your smartphone will be able to help you obtain a birth certificate, pay civic taxes and get your surroundings cleaned.
Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) is set to launch a mobile application, which can be easily downloaded on smartphones and promises to help them access civic services quick and without hassle.
BMC public relations officer Srimant Mishra said the corporation’s IT-PMU (Information technology-project management unit) would handle this application.
Odisha Computer Application Centre is designing the application along with the IT-PMU wing now. Later, the PMU will manage this service.
Though the BMC officials did not say what the name of the application would be, they hinted it would have the BMC logo and that it would be launched within a week.
Through this application, people will be able to lodge their complaints by posting photos and the corporation will try to fix the problems within a fixed time period.
This will be like any other application and anyone can download this on their mobile phone. Then they can comment, suggest or post photos.
3-Level Grievance Redress System
Once the complaints are lodged, they will be sent to the departments concerned and the officials will try to solve the problem within a specified time.
If the matter is not solved within that time period, the complaints will be brought to the notice of the department head.
If the issue is not solved in the first two levels, it will then be referred to two additional commissioners.
Time Frame
Officials said each service would have a specified time period. For example, removal of animal carcass would be done within one day while garbage cleaning within two days at the most. The time would be fixed according to the nature of the services and the maximum time period would be 15 days.
In the first phase, the BMC will focus on garbage cleaning and street lights.
There are several municipal corporations across the country, including Mumbai and Surat, which use mobile applications for grievance redress and other facilities. Bhubaneswar is going to be a part of this club.
In September, the Association of Municipalities and Development Authorities, the apex organisation of municipal bodies in New Delhi, had unveiled a standard mobile application that all civic bodies could adopt quickly and at a low cost.
This was done to help smaller municipal bodies and local development authorities have their own mobile applications so that citizens could get a variety of services on their smartphones.
Courtesy: The Telegraph
