The MCD has gone hi-tech, and it is not shirking from spending on technology. In a latest, the civic body has issued Blackberry phones to its 24 junior engineers (JE) who move around in municipal patrol vans. The idea, said officials, is to enable JEs to report any illegal and unauthorised construction immediately — even while out on the field — so that action can be taken before the unauthorised construction is completed.

MCD spokesperson Deep Mathur said, “The Blackberry has been issued to make the system more effective and transparent. Till a few months ago, it took a few days for a complaint to reach the concerned officer. A junior engineer generally prepared his complaint report in the evening (after getting back from the field) and then moved it on to the assistant engineer (AE).” The AE, Mathur said, generally received the file on the third day after the junior engineer first filed the complaint. And by the time the AE could take action, the construction often got completed.”

But JEs can now file online complaints immediately through the mobile computers on Blackberry, Mathur said. And every official in the hierarchical order — from the area’s AE to the MCD commissioner — can access these complaints. “The system is helping MCD fix accountability,” Mathur said. “A deputy commissioner and AEs will now be made accountable in case action is not taken on complaint about unauthorised construction.”

No officer, he stressed, can “sit over a complaint”.

The gadgets were issued to JEs last December as part of the MCD’s e-governance programme. “We want to make MCD a paperless organisation and ensure transparency and accountability,” MCD Standing Committee chairman Vijendra Gupta said.