THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The efforts of the Attingal municipality to better its service to the public has paid off. It became the first municipality in the district and third in the state (the other two being Malappuram and Punalur) to be certified by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO).
The municipality which had set a model in solid waste management and selected as the model town is now preparing itself to become a prototype in public service based on the concept of ‘minimum time and maximum output’. The three-year certification for the municipality has been provided after considering certain parameters, including service to the public, its on-time delivery and public satisfaction, basic amenities, behaviour of staff, file management and others.
“The certification is in recognition to our efforts. The biggest challenge is to set up an error-free file management system. For that, we set up a record room and categorised every files and record related to the municipality from 2008. The system is arranged in such a way that a file or a record could be traced within three minutes, said M Pradeep, Attingal municipal chairman.
Another initiative that is on the cards is to chalk out a time slot for various services.
“The public might have to wait for hours to avail the service of staff if they get engaged in routine tasks, including field visits. To avoid this we are planning to introduce a time slot for various services. It will be mandated that officers handling such services will have to be in their seats during that time. This will ensure the concept of ‘minimum time and maximum output,” Pradeep said.
At the same time, municipal secretary Pradeep Kumar said as part of serving the public and providing them with timely and quality service it had earlier set up the front office and Janasevana Kendra. “The elected representatives, as well as the staff, had worked hard to earn this tag. The challenge will be to keep up the momentum as the assessors will evaluate the performance each year,” said Pradeep. The municipality in its 2019-20 budget had also envisaged to become a model municipality by ensuring land to all families belonging to the Scheduled Caste category.