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BMTC citizen charter
bdpak - 18 November, 2009 | Bangalore | BMTC | Bus | Analysis | Transportation | public transport
I had an opportunity to go through the citizen charter of the BMTC, especially the complaint handling system of the same and it read as below
§COMMUTER GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL SYSTEM:
"BMTC has a well developed but simple and informal system of Public Grievance Redressal, this functions at every level to ensure its easy accessibility to the commuter and general public. It is geared to give prompt relief to the aggrieved members of the Public The public is provided with multiple channels for presenting their grievances and obtaining relief. Complaints are accepted at its facilities like Depots, Bus Station, and Corporate Office through word of mouth, written representation, telephone, E-mail, Print Media etc.In cases warranting suo-moto action BMTC initiate its without waiting for a formal complaint from the aggrieved."
The wordings itself prove that BMTC is not particular about commuter redress system.
First of all BMTC has accepted itself of having informal system to handle public grievance which means there is no accountability on no. of complaints handled by the corporation.
Secondly BMTC claims to have multiple channels to attend the complaints but with no stipulated time limit for the same and the action taken against the concerned for failing to meet the time limit.
The reason for BMTC fearing to introduce a formal complaint redressal system is that they are well aware of the low quality work force hired by them which turn is a result of low salary paid for them. For example most of drivers are hired on contract basis with dismal salaries of around Rs.4000/- plus per month. With no guaranteed job and dismal salary incentive many talented drivers hesitate to serve the BMTC.A proof of this is recently around 3000 workers were hired by BMTC on contract basis but now only 500 people are continuing their job rest have given up.
BMTC which boasts of gaining profits in terms of CRORES should first have a good hiring, training and welfare policy for their staff and then develop a reliable complaint redressal system including online. These shall solve half the problems faced by the consumers.
BMTC could emulate the complaint redressal system of BWSSB which holds WATER ADALAT to have a face to face interaction session to solve the problems .For information you can visit the following site
http://www.bwssb.org/help_faq2.htm
Hope PRAJA shall make use of this information to force BMTC to introduce the above features in its organization set up.
Personally I shall address a letter to the traffic controller in this regard. I happened to do all these exercise because I found out in recent days the bus service on Ring road connecting Gorguntapalya and Hebbal was very erratic resulting in delay to reach my office. When I started to analyze the root problem I stumbled upon the organizational defect in the BMTC which needs to be addressed in a very serious manner.
With thanks
B.Deepak Kumar
COMMENTS
no response to feedback
j_venu - 18 November, 2009 - 07:43
i had written two emails BMTC, one was an appreciation ( conductor and bmtc staff helped me to find my Lost Mobile in the bus ) and the other one complaint. Both went to the "black hole" without any response.
In one of the recent praja meeting's with bmtc it was assured that new BMTC website would address this.
you may want to try here, and let praja know your feedback. (not sure if it is functional , site under testing)
http://www.bmtcinfo.com/site/BSComplaints.jsp
New website any better?
silkboard - 12 December, 2009 - 13:13
How do you guys like the new website?
There is a page for complaints as mentioned by j_venu in previous comment. Page is functional now, see it here: http://www.bmtcinfo.com/site/BSComplaints.jsp
But to me, no citizen feedback system is complete without a way for everyone to see the full queue of complaints/feedback and status. Such visibility will create natural pressure to respond. At the same time, if the volumes are high, some feedback complaint can be marked as "not applicable" and left alone. But with time, if complaints are actually read and replied to in regular manner, the volumes will come down.
In the long run, transparency always helps.
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