Signs of development

WARANGAL is one of the oldest municipalities in Andhra Pradesh. At present it covers an area of 110 square kilometres and has 53 election wards. According to Census 2011, the population is seven lakh.

Recently, the State government issued a notification stating that the municipal corporation would soon be upgraded to the Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation, which will include the 45 gram panchayats surrounding the corporation limits.

Warangal is a centre of education for both academic and professional courses and is a growing heritage city. Rice mills, small-scale industries, beedi industries besides medical institutions, the National Institute of Technology and Kakatiya University have made Warangal the second-most important city in the Telangana region after Hyderabad. The city's rail and road networks have added to its importance as a commercial centre. The corporation, which was under a financial crunch, has of late made rapid strides in development. The Commissioners who served the corporation in the past decade undertook development such as the paving of roads, the beautification of traffic islands and extending street lighting. The drinking water network, which dates back to the Nizam era, is being revamped with the construction of additional filter beds. A new distribution line is also being built to cater to the ever-increasing habitations around Hanamkonda, Warangal and Kazipet towns.

Corporation Commissioner Vivek Yadav, who took charge recently, has initiated a series of reforms, starting with the redress of grievances. We have revived the Citizen Service Centre where we promise to implement the citizens' charter. A series of initiatives are being launched now relating to this. Parichay is one of them where the staff go round two divisions in the early hours and find out for themselves what problems citizens are facing, he told Frontline.

The corporation is also contemplating implementing the management information systems (MIS) network in its offices. In this system, every complaint will be routed directly to the section concerned and the officer-in-charge. According to the Commissioner, most of the complaints pertain to apathy of staff. With the MIS in place, no officer can disown responsibility as the system requires an action-taken report to complete the thread.

In addition to the Citizen Service Centre, the corporation has also established a grievance cell that citizens can call or come to on any working day to demand better services. Besides this a Praja Darbar (grievances redress day) is conducted by the Commissioner every Monday from 10-30 a.m. to 2 p.m. when he receives grievances/complaints in person. The corporation has established 10 e-seva centres in various places in the city to make it convenient for people to pay property tax, water charges, and so on.

Gollapudi Srinivasa Rao