Gurgaon municipal body launches survey to gather residents’ feedback on civic issues

The survey was launched a week after Gurgaon ranked 112 among 434 cities in the third edition of the nationwide cleanliness survey released on May 4 by the Union urban development ministry.

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) has launched a citizen experience feedback survey to engage with residents and seek their assessment of various issues plaguing the city.

The findings of the survey will be analysed and shared with zonal officers to implement and monitor the progress of highlighted issues. The officials feel that the survey would act as a precursor to next year’s nationwide Swachh Bharat survey. (Parveen Kumar/HT Photo)

The link to the survey has been put up on the MCG website and covers critical topics such as roads, streetlights and encroachments. The survey was launched a week after Gurgaon ranked 112 among 434 cities in the third edition of the nationwide cleanliness survey released on May 4 by the Union urban development ministry.

The MCG survey link will be available for two weeks and, depending on the response, the municipal body will plan to extend the duration.

The findings of the survey will be analysed and shared with zonal officers to implement and monitor the progress of highlighted issues. The officials feel that the survey would act as a precursor to next year’s nationwide Swachh Bharat survey.

“We have been monitoring the conversations about the city on digital and print media to analyse the sentiments of citizens. We have shortlisted 10 key areas that are on top of every citizen’s agenda,” said Amit Khatri, additional commissioner, MCG.

The survey is open to anyone and is being delivered through an interactive online tool where a resident just has to drag and click to rate.

The duration ranges from 30 seconds for a quick survey to three minutes, depending upon the level of information one may want to provide. It will also be introduced at the toll-free helpline to record citizens’ response.

“Unless we know how citizens feel about the city, irrespective of the fact that they reside or commute from nearby places, we will not be able to induce targeted interventions at the ground level,” Khatri said.

The MCG has recently implemented a social media grievance management system that monitors response on its Facebook and Twitter handles. Anyone commenting on the MCG page will get a response within 24 to 48 hours, depending on the nature of their post.

“A majority of the city’s 1.2 million citizens are active on social media and that makes it an important engagement platform,” he said, while emphasising the importance of communication and highly responsive grievance systems in enhancing the citizen experience.