GURGAON: Close on the heels of shutting down the online grievance system, the MCG has also stopped registering the complaints made by residents at its call centre through its toll-free number. Residents have already started accusing the new municipal commissioner, Praveen Kumar, of “erecting a tower of silence” around him so that he is not bothered by complaints.

For the past 12 days, whenever a resident called the call centre to register a complaint, he or she was simply asked to narrate the problem but was not given any sort of number to track the progress. Normally, a complaint number is issued and, once resolved, the call centre makes a confirmatory call.

Residents are getting increasingly frustrated with the measures being taken by the MCG chief that they allege prevent transparency and accountability.

In fact, following a TOI report on Friday detailing the shutdown of the grievance system, a meeting of several RWA bodies and residents’ group Clean Gurgaon was held on Saturday to protest against the ‘high-handed’ steps being taken by the MCG commissioner.

Residents are also planning to meet the local MP, Rao Inderjit Singh, who recently announced he would join the BJP, to seek his support in bringing back transparency in the MCG.

Clean Gurgaon says Kumar’s moves were “regressive” and “anti-development”. A volunteer of the group said, “The current levels of sanitation in the city do not warrant dismissal of any system that can help act as the ears and eyes of the administration and that promotes residents’ collaborative work and participation. We strongly feel that we need to plan an agitation to attract the attention of the MCG commissioner, who seems to be doing everything he can to shield corrupt sanitation contractors by removing all kinds of transparency measures.”

When asked, MCG officials said they could not commit as to when the call centre row would be resolved. “For the past 12 days, we have been experiencing some technical issues due to which we are not able to generate a complaint number. We are not sure when this problem will get resolved,” said an official.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/Municipal-Corporation-of-Gurgaon-hangs-up-on-complaints/articleshow/29373239.cms