Citizen activists are upset as emails sent to official addresses of Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) and other government departments are getting bounced since past two weeks. They said that the disruption in communication has affected redressal of citizen grievances.
Social activist Qaneez Sukhrani has written to principal secretary of general administration and information technology departments that she has been receiving “server down” and “failure” messages since October 26, 2022, from official state government email addresses.
“Emails to CMO, DCMO, chief secretary and principal secretaries have been bouncing back since October 26. I think the IT department had shut down the server for the long Diwali vacation and forgotten to switch it back,” Sukhrani stated in her letter to state officials.
Another senior activist Ravindra Sinha said, “I have been receiving “error” message for emails to CMO and other government departments for the past three weeks. It is a technical error that needs to be resolved at the earliest as citizens are suffering,” he said.
Activist Pushkar Kulkarni said, “It is a matter of shame that a basic service like official email is getting bounced for a long time. Where will citizens raise their objections and directly communicate with the government? We claim to be IT service providers to the world, but when it comes to service delivery to citizens, we don’t even have a basic arrangement in place.” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Activist Pushkar Kulkarni said, “It is a matter of shame that a basic service like official email is getting bounced for a long time. Where will citizens raise their objections and directly communicate with the government? We claim to be IT service providers to the world, but when it comes to service delivery to citizens, we don’t even have a basic arrangement in place.” he said.
{{/usCountry}}General administration department officials said that the CMO is looking into the matter.
The CMO’s office was unavailable for comment despite repeated attempts to contact on phone and messages.