Bengaluru East City Corporation Plans Citizen Help Centre for One-Stop Grievance Redressal: Commissioner D.S. Ramesh
Bengaluru: Bengaluru East City Corporation is considering setting up a technology-driven ‘Citizen Help Centre’ to provide residents with a single point for submitting civic applications, representations and complaints, tracking their progress and ensuring continuous monitoring until the issues are resolved, Commissioner D.S. Ramesh said.
The proposal was discussed in detail at a meeting chaired by Ramesh at the Mahadevapura zonal office. Officials were given several directions on designing a system aimed at providing citizens with simpler, faster, transparent and accountable public services while eliminating the need to visit multiple offices for different civic issues.
Under the proposed system, applications, representations and complaints concerning various wings of the corporation — including property tax, town planning, roads and infrastructure, solid waste management, health, horticulture, electricity, Transferable Development Rights (TDR) and stormwater drains — would be received at a single location.
Ramesh said citizens would be able to submit applications by visiting the centre directly, while grievances received through post, email, telephone, WhatsApp and social media would also be registered. These would then be routed to the department concerned for necessary action.
The corporation proposes to assign a unique acknowledgement number to every application and complaint. Documents submitted with applications would be scanned and stored digitally. Using the acknowledgement number, citizens would be able to check the current status of their application, the department to which it has been forwarded and the officer with whom it is pending for examination.
The meeting also discussed establishing a 24×7 control room for the functioning of the Citizen Help Centre. The control room would immediately forward applications and complaints received from the public to the departments concerned and continuously monitor their progress. If an issue is not resolved within the stipulated period, it would be brought to the notice of the officials concerned for further action.
The proposed Citizen Help Centre would not limit its role to receiving complaints and forwarding them to departments. A mechanism would be created to monitor each case until the issue is fully resolved. Once a complaint is closed, feedback would be sought from the citizen. If the citizen indicates that an adequate solution has not been provided, the case would be escalated for higher-level review and appropriate action.
The meeting also considered a mechanism to take unresolved issues to zonal public grievance meetings. Cases that cannot be settled through the normal administrative process, require coordination among multiple departments, need technical examination or require a decision by senior officials would be reviewed in the presence of the officers concerned to arrive at an appropriate solution.
Another component of the proposal is the digital storage of applications and supporting documents submitted by citizens. The documents would be scanned and preserved in a secure digital system, enabling officials to retrieve older applications and records quickly whenever required. The corporation intends to use technology to simplify the entire process, including document management, searches, routing cases to departments and monitoring the progress of applications.
The proposed system would also fix responsibility for every application rather than merely forwarding grievances from one office to another. Each application would be mapped to the department concerned, the responsible officer and a stipulated time frame for resolution. The system would monitor whether action is being taken within the prescribed period.
Senior officials are also expected to get a consolidated monitoring mechanism or dashboard showing the total number of applications received by the Citizen Help Centre, cases resolved, applications under process and pending matters. The dashboard is intended to enable senior officers to continuously review the status of grievance redressal across different departments, identify pending cases and initiate necessary measures for their disposal.
Officials said such a monitoring mechanism could improve transparency, speed and accountability in public service delivery by providing senior officers with a clear picture of how civic grievances are being handled across the corporation.
Ramesh told officials that the administration’s responsibility should not end with registering a citizen’s grievance and forwarding it to another department. The progress of each complaint should be followed until it is resolved, officials concerned should be directed to act wherever necessary, and the system should ultimately ensure that the citizen has received a solution.
He also directed that the technology-based platform should be designed so that members of the public do not have to make unnecessary trips or repeatedly visit corporation offices merely to find out the status of their applications.
The corporation envisages the Citizen Help Centre as an integrated system built around the process of ‘application at one place — routing to the designated officer — resolution within a time frame — continuous monitoring — citizen feedback.’ The objective is to respond quickly to public grievances, reduce delays in disposing of applications and assign accountability at every stage of the process.
Ramesh said effective use of technology to provide citizens with simple, fast and transparent services was a key objective. Officials should remain focused on a citizen’s grievance until it is resolved and the overall mechanism should be made more effective to improve public service delivery, he said.
Additional Commissioner (Development) Lokhande Snehal Sudhakar, Joint Commissioner Dr. Dakshayini K., heads of all departments and other officials attended the meeting.
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