Team Herald
MAPUSA: The Citizens Committee on Noise Pollution, especially constituted to monitor noise pollution in the coastal belt, has urged North Goa Collector R Menaka to extend the helpline number 112 at Level 1 for registration of noise pollution.
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The committee also want the North Goa Collector to extend the helpline number 112 at Level 1 for registration of noise pollution and set a single key program to reach, making it easy to operate on the smart phones and ordinary phones which on activation will assign the complaint to Level 2.
In a written letter to the North Goa Collector, the committee raised issues pertaining to non-functioning of noise complaint handling system.
The Citizens Committee on Noise Pollution stated that the “Pilot Program” software developed by the Goa Info Tech Corporation, on noise complaint handling system which was installed last year on December 9, on trial basis exclusively for the members of the citizens committee for a period of 20 days is not functioning as per the salient features of the software approved in the proposal and presented in the High Court.
The committee highlighted that there are some serious problems pertaining to the lack of SMS facility, escalation and anonymity of the complainants which must be resolved before the app is released to the public. Also, the said software does not allow complaints to be lodged via SMS which is a key feature of the app without which it would be rendered redundant for any person without the resources to afford a smart phone and the network coverage to have internet services.
The committee further stated that lodging a complaint via SMS is the most important feature as many areas in North Goa do not have sufficient internet network to lodge online complaints. The software does not provide a standard reporting system to generate excel documents for all reports. The automatic escalation to higher authorities is incomplete or no action taken as per the standard resolving time reported.
The committee also pointed out that the details of the complainant should not be made available to any third party as this would deter citizens from making any complaints on the app for fear of threat or harm from the violator. It should only permit the viewing of details in the complaint that are necessary to process and resolve.
The committee has also expressed strong objections to the app being released to the general public without the above issues being resolved since without these features, the object and purpose of commissioning the noise pollution mobile application would not be fulfilled as per the proposal approved by the government and directed to be implemented by the High Court.
