KOLKATA: Flooded with 2.5 lakh complaints and suggestions that Didi Ke Bolo (Tell Your Sister) platform received in past four days, the Trinamool Congress has initiated the process of engaging 1000 party leaders who will be visiting 10,000 villages to redress the complaints received by the phone number and website of the platform.
Most of the complaints received by the phone number and the portal were about corruption of the party’s local leaders, lack of sustainable development works, absence of government transport modes, inadequate drinking water, poor condition of roads to reach ration shops, schools and other places that are required to visit on regular basis.
According to sources in the Trinamool, the areas will be identified after analysing the database of the complaints. "Each of the 100 leaders will visit villages from where the complaints came and talk to common people. We have targeted to visit 100 villages in 100 days," said a leader of the ruling party.
The chief minister’s office also started responding to complaints by sending instructions to concerned administrative authorities in districts to redress the allegations related to civic amenities.
The complaints are being handled in an office in Salt Lake by a team of 250 experts engaged by election strategist Prashant Kishore, who was hired by Mamata after her party’s debacle in the Lok Sabha elections reducing its seats in Parliament to 22 from 34. The BJP made heavy inroads in Bengal by taking their tally to 18 from 2.
The leadership in districts have been asked to send potential names who can be engaged for visiting the villages and respond to the complaints lodged by the newly floated platform. "Before selecting a leader, we will check his or her activities at the ground-level. If anyone is accused of being corrupt, he or she will not be selected," said the Trinamool leader.
Other than redressing the grievances, the leaders will also interact with the party’s grass-route level workers. "The chief minister advised us to ask the leaders to spend a night at the houses of common people to woo their confidence. The new venture will strengthen the party’s connect to the masses," said another Trinamool leader.
Kishore’s team is also shortlisting the suggestions received by the phone number and the website and forwarding it to the office of the chief minister. "If the suggestions are found acceptable and matching with our party’s guideline, we will accept and implement it," he said.