Bhubaneswar: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) which started Jan Sampark Divas (JSD) or grievance hearing at multiple locations Friday got 168 petitions on the first day itself.
Earlier, the corporation used to hold the grievance hearing every Monday at its headquarters at Museum Square. But, hearing at one location for a city with a population of one million has caused inconvenience to the public and affected the corporation’s public outreach efforts. This has compelled the civic body to conduct the grievance hearing at multiple locations and the initial response shows that the JSD is a welcome initiative.
According to official sources, denizens raised various issues like drainage, water logging, street lights, sanitation and pension benefits.
“Grievances were registered in the unique grievance register. There will be a review by the Commissioner of BMC to analyze the performance of JSD and also to look into the issues raised by the public. As per current plan, the review meeting will be held on January 18 and all the nodal officers or Deputy Commissioners will attend this crucial meeting,” said a top official of BMC.
As per corporation plan, the civic body will hold the JSD on 1st and 16th of every month. However, official sources informed Orissa POST that the civic body has decided to postpone the hearing date to the next day if JSD scheduled day is a holiday. In fact, the centre at Vanivihar got the highest number of grievance petitions (44).
The registered Resident Welfare Associations also attended the JSD with resolutions. Interestingly, people also reached the JSD locations for submitting their suggestions too.
“All of them are not grievance petitions. Some of the residents associations requested BMC for widening and construction of new roads. All the petitions are entered into JSD register and we will have a meeting on Monday to discuss the issues raised at JSD. This crucial meeting will discuss the action to be taken on the issues. All the grievance will be sorted at the earliest,” assured a top BDA official.
PNN