CHENNAI: In its efforts to reach out to the people from all sections, DMK government on Wednesday launched Ooratchi Mani, a grievance redress system for people living in 12,525 village panchayats. Through the system, the public can call toll-free number 155340 and lodge their grievances about almost all basic amenities. The Ooratchi Mani call centre will function between 6 am and 10 pm every day.
Incidentally, the concept of Ooratchi Mani has been taken from historic ‘Aaraichi Mani’, a bell placed at the palace entrance of Tamil kings, particularly Manuneedhi Chozhan. If someone rings this bell, it will be heard in the chamber of the king so that the king can redress the grievance immediately.
Rural Development Minister I Periyasamy launched the Ooratchi Mani call centre at the office of the directorate of rural development and panchayat raj department here. The minister also interacted with the public through the call centre and enquired about their grievances. The personal assistant to collector will be the nodal officer for the grievance redress system in all the districts. He will review the implementation of the system every month.
Official sources said the people could lodge their complaints regarding water supply, road, housing, sanitation, building plan approval, tax-related queries, garbage clearing, permission for starting new industries, etc. relating to village panchayats.
“People need not search for individual offices to resolve their issues. They can just call the toll-free number and lodge their grievances,” the officials said.
Asked whether a deadline has been fixed for resolving the grievances, the officials said the time limit would depend on the nature of the complaints. For example, water supply issues will be resolved in 48 hours. Plan approval and housing issues will take a week’s time.
“The call centre is a major initiative, and has been rolled out on an experimental basis. In due course, many technical advancements will be introduced in the grievance redress system to reduce the time taken to resolve the issues. Most of the complaints would go to the village panchayat secretary at the first stage. It depends on the kind of feedback we get in the coming months from the public,” the officials told TNIE.
The officials also said the rural development department has plans to develop a mobile app in due course to make it easy for the public to lodge their complaints. As of now, those who lodge the complaint will get an SMS. If the complaint is not resolved within the time limit given, it would automatically go to the knowledge of the next level officer to the top officer of the rural development directorate to ensure that no complaint is ignored.
Dial 155340