Panchayat and Rural dept to launch app to look into complaints

The state Panchayat and Rural Development department on Wednesday introduced a mobile phone app to enable people to lodge complaints related to the functioning of the department. Steps to solve the problem will be taken up within the next 72 hours.

This is the first time in the country when a panchayat department has taken up such a step to expedite the task of the department following direction of the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Besides using the app, once can also send letters or make a call in the department’s toll free number to lodge a complaint. The state panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee on Wednesday inaugurated the online based system – Protikar - by which the problems can be solved within a stipulated time.

He had himself demonstrated the system during the inauguration programme and showed how it has been made easier for a common person to approach the department for any sort of support.

It would help a person to file a complaint even from the remotest part of the state and one would no more need to run to the city to get their work done. Thus, there will be no question of harassments.

The stock of the progress of a project can also be assessed using the website of the Institutional Strengthening of Gram Panchayats (ISGP). The first phase of the ISGP projects has been successfully completed and the Centre and World Bank has given clearance to initiate the work of the second phase. The work of the second phase will start from July 1 and will continue till December 2022.

In the second phase, 3,382 villages in 19 districts of the state will be brought in and the budget for the phase is Rs 1783 crores of which World Bank is giving a financial support of Rs 1372 crores and the state government is giving Rs 411 crores.