Civil Supplies Dept launches WhatsApp Centre

Hyderabad: IT Department Principal Secretary Jayesh Ranjan inaugurated the WhatsApp Centre at Civil Supplies Bhavan here on Friday.

Speaking on the occasion, Jayesh Ranjan said, “With the help of Civil Supplies Department WhatsApp No. 7330774444 people can send short messages, images, audio, video clippings to Civil Supplies WhatsApp Control Room. Ten to fifteen Telangana government departments are using technology to great effect and getting best results. Civil Supplies Department is one of them”.

The Telangana Civil Supplies Department has also decided to use WhatsApp to receive complaints from public about the various services undertaken by the Department and its stakeholders like farmers, rice millers, Godown owners, Transporters and Fair Price Shop Dealers.

With the help of Civil Supplies Department WhatsApp No. 7330774444 people can send short messages, images, audio, video clippings to Civil Supplies WhatsApp Control Room. The complaint will be forwarded to the concerned officer on WhatsApp, get their immediate response and inform the complainant about action taken. The general public can complain on corrupt practices of department officers, unduly closed F.P. Shops, shortage of ration, diversion of essential commodities, injustice to farmers, about epos machines etc.,

WhatsApp will be very useful for beneficiary make notice to the higher officials in solving problems pertaining in Ration cards, information about goods supplied on ration cards, corrupt practices of the officers immediately.

A control room has been set up in the Civil Supplies Bhavan which will be monitored by three members on the complaints being received on a 24x7 basis.

For the past 10 months, 15 Groups of WhatsApp for officers have played a vital role in ensuring timely action, coordination and solution of problems throughout the State. Earlier, there used to be a gap between the Head office and the Districts with very little communication between them, except for official communications and meetings. Also, there used to be communication gap between the Civil Supplies Department and the Civil Supplies Corporation officers. These 15 groups have bridged all these gaps and broken the walls.

With a view to prevent diversion of PDS rice which is going on for decades together, a Command Control Centre with the latest technology has been designed to watch every movement of vehicles involved in stage-I i.e., stocks moved from Buffer godowns to MLS points and Stage – II transportation of PDS rice and other commodities moved from MLS Points till the commodities reach the Fair Price Shops.

Meanwhile, the Civil Supplies Department has decided to install 1715 HD cameras in 171 MLS Points/Godowns in the State wide. It came to an agreement with Telangana State Technology Services (TSTS).

The Civil Supplies Department has taken steps to plug loopholes in the existing system of PDS and strengthen the system to avoid diversion of PDS rice and other essential commodities by utilizing the latest technology available. With the success of implementation of CCTV Cameras in Nine godowns in Greater Hyderabad zone, department decided to install at all godowns state wide. The facility of seeing the operations on video wall will also be extended to all the Joint Collectors in the State offices in the near future.

The implementation of CCTV Cameras in 171 MLS Points will be taken up in a 4 Phases. Phase – 1 will cover 43 godowns in Mahabubnagar, Ranga Reddy districs; Phase – 2 will cover 54 godowns in Medak, Nalgonda, Karimnagar; Phase-3 will cover 34 godowns in Warangal, Khammam and Phase-4 will cover 40 godowns in Nizamabad, Adilabad districts. About Rs. 50 crore are expected to be spent on installation of these CCTV Cameras in first phase