Government to widen Sutharya Keralam project net

Government to widen Sutharya Keralam project net
Thursday August 7 2008 01:09 IST M K Sunil Kumar | ENS

KOCHI: The number 155300 will soon become a magic key for the public in redressal of their grievances. Dial the number and file your complaints to the Sutharya Keralam project of the state government departments. "You can even have the Chief Minister answering to your complaint," say sources.

The initiative is part of the revival of the citizen call centres launched by the IT Mission in 2004. The citizen call centres were designed for making available to the public the details of 18 state departments. But the call centres remained passive for almost four years.

It was the decision of many departments to start their own call centres which woke up the IT Department from its deep slumber.

Initially it is the complaints related to the Commercial Taxes Department, Civil Supplies Department or the complaints sent to the Sutharya Keralam programme that can be filed through the citizen call centres, sources said. Complaints regarding the SPARK project, National Portal of India, Malayalam Computing, e- Krish projects of the IT Department etc. will be entertained at the call centres.

"Once a complaint is received, it will be recorded and the call centres will forward a message to the ministers concerned, secretaries and other department heads," said the IT Secretary.

For ensuring immediate action on the complaints, call alerts will be sent to the mobile phones of those in the key post. The departments concerned will sent their reply to the complainants’ address.The call centre will function round-the-clock. There will be a cost-sharing mechanism between the departments and the IT Mission.

Though, many of the departments have expressed their willingness to depute three employees each to the call centre, it became impractical as they will be forced to do night shifts.

So, each departments has agreed to give Rs 5,000 each for the maintenance of the centre.