Mumbai: BMC has been fast asleep on its 24x7 helpline app

A year and a half after it was launched the BMCs MCGM 24x7 mobile application still does not have the muchtouted complaint lodging facility The mobile application was launched in July 2014 wherein users were supposed to be able to pay municipal bills taxes renew licences and file complaints When the app was launched it was said that the facility to lodge complaints will be made available by December 2014 but it still hasnt seen the light of dayThe home page of the app has a facility for complaints Right But this is the result you get on pressing the complaints tabIn a bid to change with time and make facilities available to citizens at a click the BMC had launched the MCGM 24x7 mobile application last year The application was to allow citizens to avail of certain facilities without having to go to the ward office or any facilitation centre The facilities to be provided included payment of water bills property tax and renewal of licences Besides it was also supposed to have a fourth section to submit grievances or complaints Although at the time of the launch only the first facility was available then Mayor Sunil Prabhu had assured citizens that the rest will be made operational soonBMCs apathyI remember using the app back then which said that the complaints tab will be made operational by December 2014 Then they removed that line Now it only says to be launched soon Its almost as if the BMC wants us to pay money on time but doesnt want to hear our complaints said Sharique Raza Shaikh an activist from MaladAccording to RTI applications made by Shaikh the app was developed by the Center for Development of Advanced Computing CDAC and its Complaints section was supposed to go live by July 2015 That has not happened in this case Besides Shaikh had also asked the civic body for copies of the agreement signed between it and CDAC but in one reply he was told that the agreement was with the municipal secretary while the next time he was told that no such agreement was signed Both the RTI queries were answered by the BMCs IT departmentMeanwhile the app has got a number of negative reviews on Google Playstore but an average rating of 35 One of the users who had given it a one star rating on Playstore wrote When I attempted to pay the water bill the amount is deducted but at the end of the transaction it shows an error Now what to do This has already happened with me twice or thricehellip And on the website the complaint option is not available We are using this app for saving time but it has given lot of headache But dont have other choice because MCGM is not upgrading their websiteAnother wrote complaints tab says coming soon hope to see that tab activated post which we can flood with complaints He had given it a twostar ratingBMC saysDenis Fernandes senior system analyst at BMCs IT department told midday It is true that we had planned to make the complaints section functional immediately But later our priorities changed We wanted to focus on the other three services which had the maximum user response and demand So we decided to roll them out first in English as well as Marathi That took some time But now the software development of the complaints section is done It will go through a testing and security audit stage and should go live in a month or so