Patnaik launches Social Media Grievance Handling Mechanism

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, whose social media following has been rising steadily, on Wednesday launched an innovative Social Media Grievance Handling Mechanism that the state government hopes will rejuvenate the government-public interface.

The government said it would create a strong bond of trust between the government and the people. The mechanism includes a Web Portal as well as a Mobile App. It is an internal mechanism of the government to efficiently manage people's grievances.

Launching the grievance redressal mechanism, the Chief Minister said he would personally monitor the performance of officers in attending the grievances of people on social media.

The officers are expected to respond to grievances ideally within 24 hours. The officers with better performance on grievance redressal will be marked green, and those with below average performance will be marked red, Patnaik noted.

The Chief Minister said he would call both the green and red marked officers to thank or suggest improvements as the case may be.

This new Social Media Grievance Handling System perfectly encapsulates the principles of 3Ts - Technology, Teamwork and Transparency, and combines them to address the issues faced by the common citizens directly and efficiently, he added.

It will also be a measure of government's sensitivity and empathy towards citizens' needs and concerns.

Notably, the Chief Minister's followers on Twitter have touched 1.5 million. The combined social media connectivity on both Twitter and Facebook is more than two million.

A presentation was made to officers present on how to use this new mechanism effectively.

The meeting was attended by state IT Minister Chandra Sarathi Behera, Chief Secretary, Development Commissioner, Secretaries of various departments along with district collectors and superintendents of police through video conferencing.

--IANS

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