ENTERPRISE | REAL CASE Ruchika Goel [email protected]

How an Indian Village is Resolving Civic Issues with Hi-tech Complaint Redressal System Mishrikoti Village Gram Panchayat has implemented a call center service to empower residents to flag civic issues using facilities such as CCTV camera, walkie-talkie, siren, and Wi-Fi

hile people in major cities still run from talkie, siren and Wi-Fi, the residents can flag issues re- pillar to post to get their civic issues re- lated to panchayat officers, hospitals, ration cards, etc. solved, a small village called Mishrikoti in the district of GOING THE RIGHT WAY has certainly set an example by imple- Earlier, whenever any villager had a query, he had to Wmenting a hi-tech civic complaint redressal system. visit the Mishrikoti Village Gram Panchayat and call Today, with help of a call center, CCTV camera, walkie- on the number available on the board. There was zero

28 | October 15, 2015 www.dqindia.com A CyberMedia Publication | ENTERPRISE | REAL CASE

Earlier, when the villagers called the police station it was difficult to connect to the higher authorities. Post implementation, the calls if unanswered at the entry level automatically gets transferred to the next level and this has forced people to answer calls and respond to complaints faster

—Girija Gowda Head of Sales–South at Knowlarity Communications

tracking and accountability, since personal numbers acceptability was high considering the ease at which the were shared and it was difficult to track incoming calls service could be managed.” with time and recording. There was no escalation point and the villagers had to go to the Tehsildar office for EFFECIENT GREVIANCE REDRESSAL escalations. As today villagers can flag their issues from one number Looking at the pain-points, the Chairman felt the need and also escalate using the same number, it has increased for one number where villagers could call and connect to their confidence. various departments and also escalate using an Interac- Gowda of Knowlarity Communications says, “In the tive Voice Response (IVR). He was also keen on tracking past when the villager called the police station, most the outcome of complaints in terms of TAT, etc. calls were unanswered. And there were no escalation In line with the needs, gram panchayat chose Knowlar- telephone number shared (Inspector, SP, etc ). It was ity Communications to implement a call center service in difficult to connect to the higher authorities. Post im- the village. plementation, the calls if unanswered at the entry level Gram Panchayat Head Parvatevva Ganjeegatti says, automatically gets transferred to the next level.” This “We deposited money in the panchayat accounts to en- has forced people to answer calls and respond to com- able call center services provided by Knowlarity Commu- plaints faster. nications. Villagers are expecting positive and effective All calls today are tracked and gram panchayat has results in the future.” access to statistical information on calls received, com- The solution implemented by the gram panchayat was a plaints registered, complained resolved, time taken to mobile number with IVR, which routes calls to concerned resolve the complaint, no of complaints escalated, etc, departments. In case the calls go unanswered at the first which wasn’t available in the past. This in turn has signifi- level, the same can be forwarded to higher officers as per cantly increased efficiency. the escalation matrix. This was a simple affordable cloud- The implementation is in line with the Digital con- based solution which addressed the key problem of con- cept of empowering every Indian village with technology nectivity, accountability, and most importantly traceability. that does not require any high-end gadgets. Looking at Girija Gowda, Head of Sales–South at Knowlarity Com- how the system of raising complaints can help in en- munications says, “We shared a demo account with the suring better administration and governance, gram pan- team there and made them test the services for a week, chayats of Yeliwal and are also implementing post which they agreed to subscribe for the service. The the solution.

| A CyberMedia Publication www.dqindia.com October 15, 2015 | 29