No separate cell in SCB to deal with grievances

Secunderabad: As the Secunderabad Cantonment bereft of a separate grievance cell, many civics issues especially infrastructural development are not being taken up. In an RTI response, the SCB disclosed that each department works individually in the SCB office and they track their own data. There is no separate wing in SCB to track all the grievances.

Robin Zaccheus, RTI activist, said, "SCB is 10 to 20 per cent higher than the GHMC when it comes to collecting water bills or tax charges. But why is there a lack in development in the cantonment limits. An RTI was filed regarding various issues like how much tax was collected from 2014 till date, what were the development activities carried out and what public grievances were filed.

In the reply received from the concerned officials of SCB it was shocking to know that SCB does not have any separate grievance cell. Each department including the sanitation wing, water and electrical department, and engineering wing holds their own data. I was asked by a concerned official to file a separate RTI pertaining to the issue to a different wing."

From 2014 there are many development works that are pending like widening of roads, no status on opening the 21 closed roads and many more. The SCB only reacts to the problems faced by the residents but no permanent solution is been taken on the issue. It is clearly understood that SCB does not want to revile the data, as once it is in public domain then people will start questioning the authorities, added Robin.

"There are no proper development and infrastructure activities taking place in SCB. There are no dedicated authorities to govern the body. It takes months to solve an issue," said a resident of SCB.