NEW DELHI: Three months after its launch, the War Room—initially set up to check the spread of misinformation on government schemes and keep a tab on hate messages on social media in Noida—has become a tool for dissemination of information and redressal of departmental grievances of public.
Brainchild behind the War Room, Gautam Buddha Nagar district magistrate Brajesh Narain Singh, who took over the charge in April, said, “Public has become more aware, which is evident from the huge number of people visiting the office daily.”
The 2009-batch IAS officer is making every possible effort to ensure transparent administration. To curb frauds by private contractors, the office has put up a list of 355 contractors with character certificates issued to them based on the background check done by the police and public complaints on the contractor.
“Character certificate has been made mandatory for a contractor to get contract for construction. There have been cases when people were duped by the contractors, so this step was necessary,” said Singh, who was serving as additional resident commissioner in New Delhi.
It has been decided that a list of all good doctors at various authority-run hospitals will be issued.
To bring more accountability in private and government-run schools in Noida, contact numbers of all school principals and class teachers have been put up on the DM office’s website. Parents can directly approach Singh if they find teachers absent from schools.
This information has also been made available through various groups of RWAs. “My aim is to empower people with as much information as possible. Public participation is most important and many other stakeholders have joined us” Singh said. At any given time, four to six government officials are busy forwarding grievances and answering queries related to different departments.