Grievance # 1: Can’t complete step no. 1
Old version of the app is working fine, say some users
With the official arrival of monsoon, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has appealed to the citizens to use its MCGM 24x7 app to register complaints about potholes on the roads under the civic body's jurisdiction. However, the mobile application, which ‘takes service delivery to the next level’ and has over one lakh, has been facing technical hiccups with the registration of the user to begin with.
Most users, who have downloaded the recent upgraded version of the app, cannot register as they are unable to receive the autogenerated One Time Password (OTP) SMS on their cellphones. Repeated attempts to register throws up the error message -- ‘No data received from the server’.
“You will never receive OTP for registration. Welcome to MCGM,” says Sunil Gursahani, a user in the app review section.
Some users said that the old version of the application was working fine. “I had given 4 stars to the older version, but not able to register in the newer one. Stuck with the OTP SMS,” says Atul Rathod.
According to an IT consultant working with the developing team of the app, “The OTP SMS hiccup is due to the changes made in the SMS port by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC), with which the civic body’s IT department has a tie-up. This function of registering has been done to simplify the user interface. However, this technical glitch will be resolved soon.”
The director of BMC's IT department, Arun Joglekar, says, “I can understand the frustration of the users. Once the software glitches with CDAC and our vendor is resolved, users will be able to get the OTP. Although we are working on resolving this issue, it is not our immediate priority. We are understaffed and there are several pressing issues in line. Thus, it is difficult for us to operate. Meanwhile, we have requested CDAC to allow the newer version to have the features of the old one for emergency basis. There are multiple options for users to register their complaints. They have hotlines, website registration and so on,” he added.