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| There is a complaint: CM’s grievance cell does not work | | Calls fall dead at toll free number, website yet to become functional | | ZAFAR CHOUDHARY
Jammu, Sept 5: Until this month last year, the tech savvy Omar Abdullah was much closer to the netizens in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere and had grown a constituency of fans by reiterating through his blog that he is accessible to them –anytime, anywhere.
That was the case when Omar would carry blackberry backed mobile gizmos in hands and there were no protocol hassles of having a personal cell-phone. (Though he has been spotted carrying a blackberry and another recently acquired tech-toy even after becoming Chief Minister but access, of course, has been to a limited circle) As long as he had control under his fingers the accessibility and two-way communication set a precedent of its own.
Almost a year after signing off from his blog (due to indecent traffic) and eight months after becoming Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah took the second major technology propelled step get accessible to the people and stay connected with them but initiative seems to have failed before take off. Either the Chief Minister was not fully informed by his officials or there was a sufficiently hasty step in launching a grievance cell which, unfortunately, does not work. As long as IT innovation is concerned, this failed delivery was not expected from Omar.
On Friday, Omar inaugurated “Chief Minister’s Grievance Cell at Civil Secretariat”. An official spokesman described it as “an opportunity for the people of Jammu and Kashmir to register their complaints and get details about the status and nature of disposals”. He added that “the cell was on trial run for last three months”.
The government spokesman listed three ways of lodging complaints and claimed that the cell is under personal monitoring of the Chief Minister. The ways of lodging complaints included: (1) Visiting the nearest Community Information Centre to lodge complaints via internet. (2) Make a call to the toll free number 1800 180 7003 which was supposed to stay operational from 9AM to 5 PM (3). Register your complaints directly at http://10.149.2.4/awaz -supposedly a website which actually it was not.
The spokesman for the Chief Minister quoted Omar describing the cell an effective mechanism to entertain the complaints of general public and saying that people should receive the prompt, to the point and appropriate response from the cell”. “The complainer should get all information about the status of the complaint, progress and the action taken”, he said adding that he would personally audit the working of the cell regularly.
The official spokesman confirmed that the CM’s grievance cell was under trial run for last three months and Omar personally downloaded some of the complaints immediately after formally inaugurating the facility. Prompted by this information, two of the three options were used at least 50 times to reach the CM’s grievance cell but it did not work.
Immediately after Chief Minister launched the grievance cell, at least 18 calls were made on the toll free number 1800 180 7003 on Friday afternoon. Each call took this caller to an eerie silence on the other side. All these calls were made during the working hours. On Saturday again, calls were made to the same toll free number at least 35 times across the day but there was a difference over Friday. All calls made during first half of Saturday ended into the same silence but in the afternoon there was a response from the other side –there is no response at the number you called. That was the story of toll free grievance redress mechanism.
The third option of using website was already ridicule at the face of it. The given URL (http://10.149.2.4/awaz) actually can’t be address of any website. However, efforts were still made to reach there but the response was obvious –“cannot find the remote server.”
The J&K State unit of the National Informatics Center, which has created and hosted the CM’s grievance redressal cell, has very little to explain on this lapse which put Omar’s intentions into an embarrassment. When contacted, the Director NIC Abhay Kumar told Early Times that the website is still under creation and shall be fully operational in next 10 to 15 days. Abhay’s explanation was not quite in sync with the claims of the official spokesman who said that the grievance cell was working for last three months and the Chief Minister had himself downloaded the complaints.
An official later this evening said that the grievance cell may have been shut on account of Saturday being a holiday in the secretariat but that argument bellies the claims of round the clock functioning as it was suggested on Friday.
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