Punekars troubled by garbage, bad roads, and missing manhole covers, along with several other civic woes, keep tagging the Pune Municipal Corporation and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation on social media. However, in good news, the Urban Development Department (UDD) on November 27 announced a government resolution (GR) stating that residents will soon be able to file complaints regarding potholes, missing manhole covers, and garbage issues on the Aaple Sarkar portal, as these will come under the Right to Services (RTS) Act.
As per the GR, of the 70 services notified under RTS by UDD, 51 are already live on Aaple Sarkar and MahaULB portals. Another five are available on various government department portals. The addition of these crucial services aims to empower citizens to get timely solutions to everyday civic issues. Under the new GR, officials must address pothole and manhole cover complaints within 5 working days, while cleanliness issues need to be resolved within 24 hours. If this is not done, complaints will be escalated to the municipal commissioner.
Residents speak up
However, residents are sceptical about using the app. Guneet Kaur, a resident of Baner, said, "This can only be helpful if proper tracking and punitive actions are taken. To make RTS effective, strict measures are crucial. Prioritising these issues and ensuring uniform implementation across all urban local bodies is more important."
Another resident, Manish Maulik of Aundh, said, "The government is providing easy access to citizens by digitising everything, but it has been seen in the past that these issues are raised and a complaint is registered, but most of the time they close the ticket without even providing a solution. Implementation is important and crucial at such stages."
A resident of Leonara Society, Mhalunge, said, "I don't see it as a change in the system. The officials are sluggish, and they just bring these kinds of apps and what not, but the situation still remains the same. For the past two-three years, the roads in our area have been bad, accidents are happening here and there, but are the authorities responsible? No, they are not. They point fingers and do shabby work to maintain their records, but the situation remains the same."
