Glitches in reopening Namma Chennai app complaints

CHENNAI: Even though the Greater Chennai Corporation has time limits to reopen complaints in the Namma Chennai App, activists rile that they could not reopen the same as the application, created under Smart City Mission, has several glitches.

N Viswanathan, an activist from KK Nagar, said that local assistant engineers close the complaints without resolving the issues. "When we try to reopen, the application would not allow it by popping up a message saying that we reached the maximum limit to reopen a complaint, even though we had not reopened earlier, " he pointed out.

As per the system, the complaints will be attended by the assistant engineers of concerned zones. If the resident is unsatisfied, he or she can reopen, which will again be sent to the assistant engineers. For the second 'reopen', the complaints will be sent to zonal officers, and for the third time, the complaints will be sent to regional deputy commissioners. "But, we could not reach the regional deputy commissioners when we could not reopen the complaints most of the time, " Viswanathan said.

When asked, a Chennai Corporation official said that the residents should reopen the complaints within a certain time limit. The time limit has been fixed based on the nature of the complaints.

V Gopalakrishnan, another activist, said that complainants do not get any alerts when the civic officials close the complaints. "Only if we get the alert about the closure of the complaints, we could reopen within the fixed time limit, " he added.

On the other hand, some local engineers of the Chennai Corporation resort to disclose the contact numbers to the contractors, who would call the complainants to threaten.

NB Babu, a resident of KK Nagar, said that a local engineer shared his number to persons who are constructing an arch on a street by encroaching. "I raised the issue on Twitter by tagging Chennai Corporation and the commissioner. The engineer shared the tweet with the concerned persons along with my phone number. I receive threatening calls, " he alleged.