Prajavani prog yields goods results, sees disposal of 70 pc applications

Hyderabad : More than 70 per cent of the applications received at the Prajavani programme at Praja Bhavan have been disposed of till the date. As the Prajavani completed 50 weeks, the officials said that 4,31,348 applications, out of 5,23,940, were addressed, and the remaining 92,592 were pending at different stages. The applications received at Prajavani requesting to issue white ration cards, sanction Indiramma houses, and apply for jobs were only pending due to some official process. Citizens who had not applied to avail themselves of the benefits of the Six Guarantees, announced by the government recently, also submitted applications at Prajavani.

All the departments were already busy disposing of the applications in a time bound manner. Some applications are pending due to some policy decisions and pending court cases. The government has been conducting the Prajavani programme every Tuesday and Friday at Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Bhavan. The authorities made elaborate arrangements to assist the visitors who were not able to write the applications. The staff is extending help to write the applications by asking about the problems being faced by the citizens. A special desk is also open to help applicants reach out to the relevant departments to submit their applications.

Nodal Officer Divya said that a hassle-free mechanism has been created to ensure the applicants stop visiting the Praja Bhavan repeatedly. An online system was installed to know if the same petitioner visited two or three times on the same problem. The online system helps to know the status of the applications soon after the applicant’s mobile number is entered, and the officials update the status for the citizens.

Every application that has been submitted at Prajavani will be scanned first and then a reference ID number will be created. The particular ID number will be sent to the concerned department, and the same number will also be sent to the applicant’s phone through SMS, the nodal officer said.

Earlier, common people struggled a lot to submit petitions to the government. Citizens were not allowed to enter the Secretariat as well as the head offices of most departments. Collectors in some districts conduct Grievance Day every Monday. But the government did not pay attention to addressing the people’s grievances. In many areas, Grievance Day was being handled lightly. Thousands of victims were forced to visit the Grievance Cell repeatedly every week. There was no mechanism for the applicants to approach the State government to get their grievances addressed that had been pending for so long in the districts due to restrictions imposed on entering the State offices, she explained.

The State government introduced the Prajavani programme within two days after Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy assumed power.