In six hours, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation will resolve the grievances of citizens regarding civic services. The civic administration led by Rajesh Patil has launched ‘Whatsapp Chatbot’ which promises to help citizens solve their grievances the same day.
The facility was launched Wednesday, and the very next day the PCMC received as many 552 complaints, of which 502 of them were resolved by evening, officers said.
Additional Municipal Commissioner Vikas Dhakane told The Indian Express, “The PCMC has become the second municipal corporation in Maharashtra to launch the Whatsapp Chatbot using artificial intelligence. It will address the public’s complaints related to the civic services provided by the municipal corporation.”
Dhakane said that the WhatsApp Chatbot will take up complaints related to waste collection, public toilets, sewage accumulation, construction debris, littering in public places and waste-burning.
PCMC IT department head Neelkanth Poman said the residents can access the facility on their cellphones using the Whatsapp number 8888006666. “They first should save the number on their cellphones. Then all that they should do is to type “menu” to register their complaints about civic services after providing their name, address and location,” he said. The facility is available both in English and Marathi.
Dhakane said the administration will try to resolve the complaints in flat six hours. “Initially, we plan to resolve complaints in six hours. In the coming days, we will be resolving them in barely two hours,” he said.
It is quite known that getting information from government offices is a laborious task involving repeated visits, long queues, lack of uniformity in responses obtained, and referrals from one office to another. “Hence there is a need for a mechanism that would provide information to a community with regard to services and facilities provided by the municipal corporation and also save the time of administration in answering queries.”
Poman said that the facility was started to overcome communication barriers between the public and the corporation, and provide facilities for the residents to register their grievances.
“The total number of complaints received through Chatbot after launching the facility is 552 and we have resolved 503 complaints and 49 others are in the process of being resolved. The complaints are taken up during day time. If they arrive late in the day, then the complaints will be redressed the next day,” Poman said.
