MP Experiments with Accountability to the Public

Do you have a grievance or complaint against the state government, but don’t think anything will ever be done about it?

Well, if you live in Madhya Pradesh, your voice might actually be heard. In an unprecedented move, the government of MP is going to establish an “integrated citizen facilitation service centre for better public service delivery and grievance redressal.” By dialing a toll-free contact number, you will be able to document your grievance with a 25-seat contact centre, who will then forward the request automatically to respective departments for immediate response. How immediate, you may ask:

According to Madhya Pradesh Department of IT Secretary Anurag Jain, “In case a public complaint is not addressed within the stipulated time frame, the system would automatically escalate the matter to higher officials for proper action.”

Here is how the process will work:

While the system will have capability of requesting the calling line identification (CLI) or the automatic number identification (ANI) from the telephone system, it would also generate docket number for every complaint. The docket number would act as the reference number for each complaint, and citizens can seek information on the progress of their respective case using the same.

Expect the contact centre to be up and running by May end this year. For the future, the MP government hopes to expand the call center to 100 seats.