‘Make BMC Twitter handle active to resolve complaints’

An online poll states that almost 95% of Mumbaikars want an active and verified Twitter handle of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) - @MCGM_BMC so that they can lodge their complaints and get them resolved at a faster pace. The online Twitter poll, which saw a participation of 756 Twitter users from Mumbai, was carried out by a Twitter account Roads of Mumbai which actively tweets updates on roads and traffic-related issues and other grievances of Mumbaikars. This led to a public furore online when it was mentioned that the civic body’s Twitter handle was last seen active on Sept 2016 and operated by its Public Relations Office. Several users on Twitter stated that the BMC website hardly helps in acknowledging the issue, let alone resolving it.“Registering a complaint on @MCGM_BMC website or sending tweets or emails is 100% useless because the concerned ward official posts a false and fake resolution of the complaint which is not at all cross verified by seniors, even when the complainer disputes the resolution,” says Virendra Pandey, an active Twitter. Users appreciated how the Twitter handles of Mumbai Police are active and resolve complaints. “We complained several times about garbage, which is burnt on a daily basis in our locality. Nothing has yet happened. Flat-owners pay taxes so that slum people can enjoy the free facility and in turn dominate us and influence MCGM. See one of several online web complaints,” says a Twitter user Sanjay Mishra attaching screenshots of unheard complaints.The PRO Vijay Khabale said he was not aware of a dedicated handle for BMC. He stressed, “There is a dedicated online team which looks on such issues,” flatly denying that complaints registered online are never resolved.