Mumbai, May 15: How the optimum use of technology can be helpful in solving people’s problems was shown by the marathon exercise called Samvad Setu” (Dialogue Bridge) undertaken by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadanvis in the recent days.
The state is reeling under the drought and the Chief Minister obsessed with overcoming this difficult situation held marathon dialogues with 27449 public representatives and officers in the last six days and he did not stop at that. He directed the administration to take necessary steps and that too speedily to ameliorate the condition of the drought-hit people.
During the last six days the Chief Minister could reach out to 139 talukas in 22 districts through the audio bridge technology. These 22 districts included Aurangabad, Nanded, Jalna, Usmanabad, Beed, parbhani, Ahmednagar, Nasik, Dhule, Jalgaon, Buldana, Satara, Pune, Sangli, Solapur, Chnadrapur, Amravati, Yavatmal, Hingoli, Wardha, Nagpur, and Washim.
The dialogue bridge program was organized separately for every district. The audio bridge technology made it possible to establish dialogue with system of the entire district at once in a short time period. This made it possible to have fruitful dialogue on such an extensive scale and to speedily take stock of drought relief works going on.
When the Chief Minister was interacting with the sarpanchs directly through this system, he was accompanied by State Chief Secretary and principal secretaries and secretaries of departments directly related with the drought relief measures. District collectors, CEOs of Zilla Parishads, SDOs, Gat Vikas Adhikaris, Tahsildars, Gram Sevaks and others. Many a guardian secretary also participated in concerned districts in this dialogue. That made for sarpanchs possible to convey their complaints and suggestions to Chief Minister and other officials at the same time. And the directives issued by the Chief Minister on these complaints to these sarpanchs also.
884 sarpanchs directly talked with the Chief Minister through this initiative and shared their problems freely with him. Those who could not participate WhatsApp numbers are made available to them. These 22 districts are allotted 17 WhatsApp numbers and through these WhatsApp numbers 4451 complaints were received till May 13, 2019 out which 2359 complaints were directly related with drought.
A peculiar system was adopted to resolve these complaints and issues. An Excel sheet was prepared for each district separately wherein information regarding complaints received, CM’s directives, Action taken by local Administration etc. was recorded and this report about the drought relief measures taken in each district was submitted to the CM’s office. A separate system has been set up in the CM’s Office to pursue the resolution of each complaint related to drought. Process to take decision on issues related to policy matters is also being initiated. With all these, the state government is determined to overcome the drought situation with mutual cooperation with the people and administration.
