In a bid to make grievance filing more accessible and reduce the need for physical contact, the Direc torate of Public Grievances (DPG) will soon roll out a mobile app and an AI based call centre. Speaking to O Heraldo, DPG Director Prasad Volvoikar said the mobile app will be launched on De cember 19, 2025, while the AI-pow ered call centre will go live on January 26, 2026. “The app will be launched on December 19 this year. Nodal of ficers have been appointed in every department to address complaints,” Volvoikar said.
“The app will feature GPS integration to pinpoint the exact location of issues requiring redressal, enabling us to inform the concerned authorities accurately. We are imple menting this in a phased manner, with the idea of receiving complaints quickly and forwarding them to the respective departments,” Volvoikar explained. He further added that the platform will include dash boards accessible to ministers and senior departmental officials to monitor grievance redressal. “The idea is to help the common person,” he said. Volvoikar also noted that all departmental apps will be integrated with the DPG’s public grievance app, creating a unified system. About the upcoming AI-based call centre, he said it will leverage artificial intelligence to enable citizens to register complaints via phone calls. “A mechanism is being developed to allow complaints to be registered without staff intervention at the call centre. Initially, there will be human operators, but their number will be gradually reduced. We are also working on a system that allows grievances to be lodged in Konkani, in addition to Marathi, English, and Hindi,” Volvoikar stated. He added that all departments providing public servic es will be integrated under a single complaint mechanism, with ‘1095’ becoming the unified helpline number for all grievances. “Some people do not come forward to lodge a complaint because there is no medium. The technology driven initia tives will give them a medium through which they will tell us about their grievances and it will help the government understand the people’s problem,” he said. The app will also help people offer suggestions to the government to improve its functioning, he added. The entire initiative is likely to cost around Rs 3 crore, he said.
