MCD’s Jan Sunwai campaign off to a slow start; only 4-5 complaints per zone

The campaign is off to a slow start with several glitches observed on the first two days itself.

Two days after it started, the “Jan Sunwai” or public grievance redressal campaign, announced by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) after the reunification of the three civic bodies, for citizens to directly reach out to high-ranking civic officials with their complaints, is yet to pick up pace.

The Civic Centre in central Delhi, the headquarters for the recently-unified MCD. (File photo)

In the absence of elected councillors, these hour-long sessions on weekdays are being projected as an alternative system for public grievance redressal, but the overall campaign is off to a slow start with several glitches observed on the first two days.

MCD has fixed 14 locations-- the 12 zonal headquarters, the erstwhile east corporation headquarters in Patparganj and the Civic Centre on Minto Road -- as venues for these public hearings but data released by the corporation shows that each venue has received only about 4-5 complaints daily over the past two days. On Monday, the 14 locations got 43 complaints of which six were resolved.On Tuesday, 81 complainants approached these hearings and 10 of them got their grievances redressed.

On Monday, the first day of the campaign, several glitches were observed with the complainants forced to move from one official to another and ultimately told to submit their written complaints by post.

A senior MCD official said the nature of complaints received on Tuesday were mostly related to garbage disposal, unauthorised construction, illegal dumping of construction waste, birth/death certificate anomalies, encroachment and cell towers. “The issues were noted down and instructions were given to the officials concerned for early resolution,” the official said, asking not to be named.

The complaints could have been more, but HT has discovered that several of the contact numbers given on the public notice announcing the Jan Sunwai were “invalid”. This paper on Tuesday tried to call on the numbers provided for the venues at the east corporation headquarters, and those at the zonal offices in Narela, Keshavpuram and City-Sadar Paharganj only to find them “out of service”.

When asked about this, a second senior MCD official said there were some teething issues and the campaign will gather pace in the coming days once the issues are resolved. “We have ordered the concerned deputy commissioners on Tuesday to reactivate the helpline numbers that are not functional,” the official said, asking not to be named.

In the transition phase, until new wards are carved out and elections are held, the civic body is being administered by a bureaucratic order led by the Centre-appointed special officer and municipal commissioner.

Abhishek Dutt former Congress councillor from Andrews Ganj, said his ward office on a busy day received about 70-80 complaints. Four to five complaints at the zonal level reflects the MCD’s “disconnect” with people, he said. “Even today, we received around 15-20 complaints at our office. We will write to L-G to suggest that citizen forums at ward levels be set up to resolve the complaints. In our ward, a health department official is the nodal officer for grievance redressal. During monsoon, when dengue and waterlogging complaints pour in, will this official manage his own work or look into people’s grievances? The present system is not feasible,” he said.

Jai Prakash, former mayor and BJP councillor from Sadar Bazar, said, “If there are 13-14 wards in a zone, 4-5 per zone complaints is negligible. My ward office still receives 20-30 complaints a day. People are not used to reaching out to officers and remain wary of their response. MCD should try to get complaints forwarded by former councillors once every 15 days.”

Atul Goyal, who heads the United RWAs Joint Action (URJA), a collective body of residents’ welfare associations, said in the absence of councillors, MCD needs to form coordination committees with the RWAs for grievance resolution. “The Delhi Police runs neighbourhood schemes in various areas where RWAs can share grievances with ACP-level officers. Such complaints can’t be resolved at the SHO level. Similarly, MCD needs to develop consultation mechanisms involving RWAs and deputy commissioners level officers,” he added.