Since 2007 we have been writing about common issues related to Belagavi and most commonly the issues are regarding the common folks and ordinary issues but which are of grave importance to the public.
Each one of you reading this, all those who just read the subject line and comment please forgive, have come across issues like Street lights not working (or working when they shouldn’t be), water leakages, potholes, garbage disposal, Traffic issues, open manholes and so on…
In the last couple of years, various social media initiatives, like using Facebook, Twitter have come up where govt agencies have shown proactive interest to engage with citizens, but the same is not happening in Belagavi.
But how many of you have tried to contact the agency in charge to get it rectified. Maybe less than 2%, and the 98% who did not do it, we aren’t blaming you as there is no full-fledged grievance readdressal system in place.
Most of the time Civic issues are handled by the Belagavi city corporation which has a website that is not updated for years. No Social media presence at all. They have a page but nothing is updated nor replied.
The Cops are somewhat active and also reply to a few complaints made on twitter. When we say somewhat we aptly know that in this world of real-time, nothing is shared in real-time, The smart city funda looks to be Joomla as the inaugurated command centre hardly helps in day to day activities. Maybe it still needs time to acclimatize itself with the city.
For simple issues like a pothole and open hole one cannot be expected to visit the City corporation office where you are not welcome, even if u go there you will be told go here, go there and when you reach at that designated table, that sir or madam is not in the chair.
In this current pandemic, the Karnataka govt used social media to the fullest extent in solving some of the issues of the public and they must be praised for it.
Right from the secretary level officers to the DIPR_COVID helpline each replied to queries to assist. I myself have so many times asked them to get answers to questions asked by readers and they have replied each time.
Why can’t such a system is not put in place not for Belagavi but in all cities. The smart city concept is on papers only where everything will be integrated, forget integration those folks haven’t been able to integrate slopes for all the roads at junctions.
A strong grievance readdressal system must be in place which is easily accessible. The city corporation had a grievance system in place made by the state e-Janaspandana Government of Karnataka http://www.espandana.karnataka.gov.in/cms/portal/login.jsf But how many know about it is the Question?
A single number for all the complaints which are then routed to the respective departments and a follow up is taken by the higher-ups so that the same are resolved.
We can just hope that the Smart city Joomla turns into a reality for a better Belagavi.
