Secunderabad Cantonment Board online portal fails denizens

Secunderabad: The online portal E- Chhawani developed by the Defence Ministry to deliver various citizen-centric services in the Secunderabad Cantonment Board seems to have failed.

Locals alleged that many grievances, including malfunction of streetlights, manholes, posted by the SCB residents in the grievance section of the portal are being closed without solving issues. Many senior citizens are facing hardship to adopt to the portal.

A SCB resident Venkat Ramana said, "I raised three complaints in the portal, one of which was about manholes that were illegally blocked. But the issue was closed without resolving it. The SCB is following the British rule, as in the portal, after logging complaints, citizens cannot take a screenshot of the copy as evidence. There is no proper mechanism in the SCB; no official is accountable for anything."

T Satish Kumar, president of Vasavi Nagar said, "Last month I had raised complaints regarding many lanes in a SCB ward on non-functioning of five streetlights. By giving an 'illogical' reply, officials closed the complaint. Due to lack of streetlights locals are facing hardship. It will be better if the board once again begins manual method of logging complaints."

Speaking to The Hans, Suresh, resident of SCB said, "They should be proper awareness regarding this application. Except some wings, including water and property tax, departments in SCB lag behind. Whenever we log a complaint in the grievance section regarding electricity, there is no response from officials. As there are many people who are yet to understand the newly-developed software, it will take some time. They should be proper awareness regarding the application."