The cell phone is probably the most potent instrument
available to a leader serving his people, but there are few leaders who use the
cell phone to its full potential. The Corporator of Ward 153 (Jayanagar,
Bangalore), Gangambika, http://www.ichangemycity.com/corporators/gangambika
is one of the few exceptions I know of. In addition to her own time and effort, her well-equipped office helps citizens get their problems attended to. Her assistant is available practically whole day to take complaints over the cell phone. Street lights have not come up, call Arun! Drinking water pipe is leaking and flooding the road? Call Arun! Whatever Arun can fix, he does fix very quickly. This practice is so good that I hope all Corporators will adopt it. I am sure that Arun is a very smart person and knows who to call for handling which complaint. And when he calls, they seem to listen to him and get the problem sorted out fast.
How do you find if there is an Arun supporting your Corporator? Look up the following URL to get a phone number of your Corporator and ask if he/she has an assistant who you can talk to when you have a routine complaint. You can also directly login complaints on this site.
is one of the few exceptions I know of. In addition to her own time and effort, her well-equipped office helps citizens get their problems attended to. Her assistant is available practically whole day to take complaints over the cell phone. Street lights have not come up, call Arun! Drinking water pipe is leaking and flooding the road? Call Arun! Whatever Arun can fix, he does fix very quickly. This practice is so good that I hope all Corporators will adopt it. I am sure that Arun is a very smart person and knows who to call for handling which complaint. And when he calls, they seem to listen to him and get the problem sorted out fast.
How do you find if there is an Arun supporting your Corporator? Look up the following URL to get a phone number of your Corporator and ask if he/she has an assistant who you can talk to when you have a routine complaint. You can also directly login complaints on this site.
What else can one do to make people’s problems more visible to government? The UK website here will give you many ideas:
Another site worth visiting for ideas ishttp://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/information/feedback-complaints
Last weekend, I heard Amir Khan telling us in his weekly program Satyameva Jayate that police often refuse to register first information reports (FIRs), even though the law does make it obligatory for them to register people’s FIRs. I would love to see a media house set up an independent website to register Citizen’s First Reports (CFR). The site can authenticate the person by asking him/her for his/her cell phone number and sending a one-time password to enable log in. It may ask for a postal address for the record. The person registering the complaint would get a copy over email and by post, and the report would be forwarded to an address on which the government agrees to receive them. The complainant may be given the option of releasing the complaint to be made visible over the web, hiding the address and name of the complainant if necessary.
Would such a web-based facility
exclude the vast majority who do not access the Internet? No, it need not.
NGO’s and political parties can provide facilities to citizens to file CFRs. In
addition to a PC and connectivity to the Internet, their volunteers can play a
significant role in helping the weaker sections claim their rights for police
protection from goondas by reporting crimes effectively and in time.
Srinivasan Ramani
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