As of Tuesday, or four days into its operations, Hello Sarkar has received 1,500 complaints from across the country. [break]
The control room has been under tremendous pressure to handle and address public complaints concerning matters ranging from social injustice, corruption and malpractices to delays in service delivery.
In the period of four days, the Hello Sarkar control room addressed public complaints involving tender disputes, attempts made at bribe giving and taking, cheating in examinations, fleecing of passengers and delay in government services, among other things.
The hotline number 1111 open to the public has been busy round the clock. Officials deputed at the Hello Sarkar control room are exhausted picking up the phone. The Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers (OPMCM) say a serious challenge has emerged before them in manage the Hello Sarkar control room and addressing public complaints lodged with it.
"How to give Hello Sarkar continuity and make it long-lasting has become a matter of concern for us," admitted OPMCM Secretary Leela Mani Paudel, who conceptualized the control room, adding, "Some ministries and government agencies have shown indifference towards the requests made by Hello Sarkar. The initiative can be continued if we are able to manage the room, address the public complaints, make government agencies accountable toward their duties and motivate the control room staff."
Altogether 1,500 complaints were lodged at Hello Sarkar by telephone, SMS, email and fax. The 1,500 complaints were thoroughly screened from a much larger total of public compliants.
On Saturday, due to timely intervention by Hello Sarkar, some 41 bus passengers in Itahari were able to recover Rs 6,150 fleeced from them by the bus owners.
And on Tuesday, fleeced passengers en route to Kathmandu from Hetauda were able to recover money from bus owners, again due to intervention by Hello Sarkar.
On Sunday, Hello Sarkar addressed problems facing Tribuwan University students.
The control room officials have been addressing public problems in close coordination with police and Home Ministry control rooms.
The phone, email and SMS number for Hello Sarkar is the same --1111.The public can phone 1111, SMS at 1111 and email at 1111@opmcm.gov.np if they have any complaint to lodge at the control room. They can also fax at 1100. Except for the fax, the public won´t have to pay anything for contacting the control room.
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