Citizens blue over helpline

Hyderabad, Dec. 16: The helpline number of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation “155304” has failed to solve the grievances of citizens. More than 4,000 complaints lodged during the past nine months are still pending with the call centre. The helpline was launched by the corporation in August, 2007. It promised to attend to civic-related complaints as early as possible. A year after the launch, citizens rue that the facility is not helpful.

“I lodged a complaint against an illegal construction in April this year. However, no action has been taken till date. The owner has extended the construction even in the set back area blocking our ventilation. Despite several calls to the helpline, no help has been rendered,”said Ms Nasreen from Yakutpura in the old city told this correspondent.

There are people who registered their complaints on the website of the GHMC www.ghmc.gov.in. However, a majority of the grievances have remained unsolved. The list of pendency pertaining to complaints lodged with the helpline and online grievances are increasing.

For example, as many as 215 complaints lodged in April are still pending. Likewise, 281 complaints in May, 317 in June, 429 in July, 764 in August, 667 in September, 556 in October, 522 in November and 433 in December are still pending with the GHMC. The GHMC officials in their defence said, “Why do you look only at the pending complaints. We have attended solved 4,000 complaints. In all, over 8,000 grievances were registered,” they said.

In fact, the number of complaints being lodged could have been five to six times more, if sufficient publicity had been created about the helpline number. Though 8,000 complaints were lodged since April, many citizens are not even aware that a helpline exists in the GHMC.

“In other metros, nearly 1,000 complaints are registered daily with the helpline centres. The number of registrations here is quite low. Another reason for this is that the GHMC helpline number is accessible only through BSNL phones,” admitted a senior official. Officials hope that the helpline would become one of the efficient facilities run by any corporation in the country.