MCH set to take complaints online

Riding on the latest wave of public-private partnership, Municipal

Cor-poration of Hyderabad (MCH) is going to unveil its proposed call center for

public grievances in a week's time. 1913-the exis-ting complaint registering

toll free number would henceforth be under the aegis of Delhi-based Call Center

Solutions. The 12x7 service will have five lines connected to a client/ser-ver

system.

According to MCH Additi-onal Commissioner IT T Vijay Kumar, "We are

opting for an escalation mechanism where the complaint reaches the con-cerned

person. When he fails to take measures within the set timelines, the com-plaint

escalates to his immediate officials."

"We designed an elaborate software package for different wings in lieu

with the MCH officials. Once the official attends to the complaint, the status

will be updated imme-diately," said Call Center Solu-tions systems engineer

Habib-Ur-Rahiman.

Initially, the services would be made available in the twin cities and later

it would be expanded to other cities. For administration purpose, the twin

cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad including Ranga-reddy district are already

classified into four zones and seven circles constituting 53 wards.

Kumar also informed that Canada-based Environment Systems Research Institute

(ESIR) has selected Hyderabad as one of the five cities in the Asia-Pacific

region for giving software license to Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

costing Rs 25 lakh.

A sample prototype using GIS on the existing property tax database has been

implemen-ted during the months of January and March 2004. "Infor-mation

presented spatially in a geographic context is many a time powerful than the

con-ventional alphanumeric repor-ting. Using GIS, within three months, we could

double the revenue from Rs six crore to Rs 12 crore," added Kumar.

MCH is also considering establishing a data center in sync with various wings

with-in the municipality. The data center would be an interface for citizens and

extranet for suppliers. It would act as an intranet for various wings including

the revenue wing, development wing and the regulatory wing.

"The existing database will not serve the future expan-sion and

consolidation of data. That's why we are plan-ning to maintain a data center

that would work efficiently even if the data load incre-ases," said Kumar.

To minimize corruption and illegal sanctioning of building approvals, MCH is

planning to go online. Singapore-based Crimson Logic is building a prototype and

according to Kumar the system would be in place shortly. The proposed package

will take not more than four to six weeks for approving a plan.

Elaborating the working of this system, Kumar said, "Once the applicant

submits his plan online, he would be given an identity number and the same would

be sent to the concerned wings. Even the building appro-val committee members

would be sitting online and give their consent. If the approval from any wing

were not given in the set time limit, the plan would be accepted as deemed

approval".

He added that there is no scope for approval of plans that violate the ethics

of constru-ction in a given area of land. The package would not accept any such

plan, which violates the norms, and hence the applicant would not be given an

identity number.

"Equally, bidding for tenders would also be made online. Usually,

bidders gather and decide on the minimum quo-tation for the tender. Hence-forth,

this would not happen and we can expect the lowest possible quotation,"

added Kumar.

(CyberMedia News)