Mamata launches Sarasari Mukhyamantri initiative
Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday launched a new initiative ‘Sarasari Mukhyamantri’ to reach out to the farthest citizen in the state and redress their grievance regarding public service delivery. She also virtually inaugurated the Kestopur Setu from the state secretariat.
The helpline number 9137091370 will be functional six days a week — Monday to Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm.
Interestingly, the helpline number will be the same as the number of the ‘Didi Ke Bolo’ initiative that was announced by Banerjee in July 2019 after the Lok Sabha elections.
“The Didi Ke Bolo’ programme was a party-level initiative. But ‘Sarasari Mukhyamantri’ is entirely an administrative one. People have been sending letters or e-mails to the Chief Minister’s grievance cell for stating their complaints. The platform consists of a call centre and field validation units and is supported with about 500 tele-callers for receiving calls and 100 validation personnel for field validation and analysis of information under the supervision of the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO),“ Banerjee said while announcing the initiative at Nabanna Sabhaghar.
When a person will call the helpline number he/ she will be hearing a short message from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and soon after it a person will pick up the phone to whom the concerned person will inform about his/ her problem.
The complainants, who will call through the Sarasari Mukhyamontri platform, shall be informed about the status of the grievance and resolution at different stages of the disposal process through SMS, phone calls and field verification by field-level personnel.
P B Salim who is the secretary of the Programme Monitoring Department with the additional charge of secretary in CMO (Chief Minister’s Office) will be in charge of this programme but it will involve the Chief Secretary, Advisor to Chief Minister and Principal Secretaries of all departments.
“All secretaries need to be active for the successful implementation of the programme. There have been instances when officers at the lower level have sat on files. This is not desirable. In cases of medical emergency, prompt interventions need to be made and the Chief Secretary should ensure the same,” Banerjee said.
The Chief Minister’s grievance cell was started in October 2019 and to date, about 22 lakh complaints have been received of which 98.20 per cent have been disposed of. “It is a remarkable achievement and all complaints have been disposed of in 7 to 15 days. After addressing the problem, the complainant receives an sms. This initiative will work to further the state government’s commitment to transparent, accountable and responsive governance for common people at the grassroots,” the Chief Minnister added.
For those, who do not have access to computers and phone calls, the state government set up Bangla Sahayata Kendras (BSKs) as one-stop service delivery centres at the grassroots to facilitate persons in need of assistance to lodge grievances.
BSKs have so far delivered more than 10 crore services to the citizens.
