NEW DELHI, FEB 23: Has your telephone been out of order for months? Do you get telephone bills for a period you never owned the phone? Have you received huge telephone bills for STD calls you never made? Have you been waiting for the telephone department to install a telephone at your residence/office ever since you booked it three years ago ?Well, you can now go to the Communications Minister Jagmohan who is available to hear all your problems at Dak Bhawan for two hours every Thursday evening. Not only does the Minister hear complaints from the public from any part of the country, he is assisted by a team of officials from the Department of Telecommmunications (DoT) and the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) to give on the spot decisions for problems of the public.
General Managers of all the 22 telecom circles in various states across the country and the two metros under MTNL in Delhi and Mumbai are required to be available in their offices for the two hours that the Minister holds his ``adalat'' sothat any case coming to the Minister for any village or town in the country can be tackled immediately.
The weekly ``adalats'' are going to be a routine affair, a unique way of marketing the badly badgered department which is always the target of public ire owing to its indifferent services.
Every complainant who comes in is heard by the Minister himself, who then orders the official concerned to resolve the issue. The complainant is simultaneously given a slip carrying the date and time he/she can visit the concerned officer in order to get a solution to his problem.
Not only this, Jagmohan has ordered that every week's complaints be received, formally listed and Action Taken Report be submitted to him before the following week's ``adalat''. In his absence, the session will be chaired by the Additional Secretary of the DoT.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.