City residents can now upload pictures and state their complaints about civic services through a new WhatsApp service that the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) will launch next week
Show to Mayor, a WhatsApp chatbot, will receive complaints from aggrieved citizens who often find it difficult to directly reach out to the civic bosses, including the mayor.
Residents can WhatsApp “Hi” to 8335999111 and then type their name before selecting the nature of the complaint.
The next step will be to click a picture of the problem and share the exact map location. The chatbot will then ask for the ward number. Finally, the complainant has to give a brief description of the problem.
The service will run parallel to the Talk to Mayor pgoramme where mayor Firhad Hakim interacts directly with citiztens every Saturday.
“The idea is to reach out to more people with our services. This is to make the CMC more consumer friendly and resolve problems faster,” Hakim said. “We will upload an image of the spot or area after the problem has been attended to.”
Senior officials of the civic body said the system would have a dashboard that will allow the mayor to keep tabs on the complaints.
“Citizens will be able to rate the service and give their feedback,” said a senior official.
Hakim said this initiative was in keeping with chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s specific instruction to the CMC to find a way to reach out to more people who have complaints.
Show to Mayor will cover services, including issues of drainage, sewerage, potholes, gully pits, birth and death certificates, building problems, water body cleaning, mutation and assessment.