SMS JAGA

by Subhranshu Kumar Satpathy


Business

free



In Odisha, the Housing & Urban Development Department is taking several innovative andprogressive steps to provide citizen-centric services in all the states urban areas, particularlytargeting those belonging to the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) and the citizens residingin the Slum areas. Timely delivery of these services regularly by the ULBs authorities is key tothe success of the measures undertaken by the Department.To ensure that the services are delivered on time, it is imperative to develop a system which willhelp monitor the delivery of the services and enable the administration to have visibility onservices/geographies that are not being sufficiently serviced to hold the responsibleindividuals/departments accountable and monitor the fixing of issues causing the insufficientservice delivery.For the administrative leadership to have access to unbiased data the participation of thecommunity and independent agencies in reporting about the services that they are entitled towill be crucial. This also helps raise the confidence of the citizens in the administration.Once the issues of poor service delivery have been recorded from the service recipients’ end, thesame should be relayed/communicated to administration and responsible departments to takecorrective action. In addition to surfacing the issues and making this information available tothe concerned authorities, a mechanism to track, monitor and escalate issues along the chain ofcommand is necessary so there is a closed loop system in place to ensure service delivery issuesare fixed.