The Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply And Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) was constituted under the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply And Sewerage Act, 1978, for attending to the growing needs of the public and for planned developments and an appropriate regulation of water supply and sewerage services in the city.

A new complaint monitoring system (based on Oracle) has been initiated by the board for effective grievance redressal. The former redressal system had shortfalls such as manual processes for complaint registration, communication, allocation of work to field staff, generation of Management Information System (MIS) reports, etc. In addition to this, there was a gap between Head, Area and Depot offices regarding the updation of status of complaints, and no facility to verify these statuses. There was no system for automated escalation of the complaints. To overcome these challenges, an effective grievance redressal mechanism has been established, which includes the reorganisation of the 24-hour Complaint Cell, constitution of Grievance Cell, introduction of Complaint Monitoring System (CMS), and the provision of computer terminals.
To obtain feedback from consumers, CMWSSB outsourced the survey assignment and entrusted the agency with the task of conducting the survey for a period of three years on service levels and submit a quarterly report covering not less than 4,500 consumers. Findings of the consumer survey helped the board to identify the initiatives to improve its services.

In the reorganisation of Complaint Cell, it was outfitted with facilities such as computer terminals for registration of complaints, three telephone lines with hunting facility, computer terminals, mechanisms for immediate processing of complaints, cell phone connections to inform the officer concerned etc. In addition to the Complaint Cell, a Grievance Cell was made functional to register all the petitions of complaints/grievances on all activities related with water and sewerage services. The received petitions are immediately forwarded to the department concerned. Redressal of complaints/petitions are closely monitored and periodically reviewed by senior officials. Information and Facilitation Counters (IFCs) are functional at the Head Office and at all ten Area Offices to assist and guide consumers to lodge complaints, grievances and petitions related to services like application forms, new assessment, name/address change, water tax and charges etc. For information dissemination, brochures, pamphlets, citizen charter etc. are available at IFCs, free of cost.

An adept CMS (Oracle 11i ERP) has been introduced for the speedy redressal of complaints. It does so in a number of ways such as allowing the consumer to lodge the complaint at any one of the offices of board; communicating the lodged complaint in a maximum of 3 minutes to persons/departments concerned; linking with maximum time limit for redressal given in citizen's charter; escalating complaints if not redressed in the stipulated time, to senior officers; and allowing to review the status of complaints at any location at any point of time etc. Along with CMS, the board has also introduced a Complaint Monitoring Software to keep track of complaints and their recurrences.

Public Grievance Rederssal / Open House Meetings are conducted at all 11 area offices on fixed dates and a time, involving voluntary organizations, Consumer Action Groups, Residents Associations, representatives and others. A senior officials of the rank of Superintending Engineer is posted as the Presiding Officer. The date and time of Open House Meetings are widely disclosed through local newspapers.

In order to become more transparent, accountable and citizen friendly in its functions and policy decisions, the board has published a Citizen Charter and a Citizen Guide to clearly state the standards of services. Along with these activities, the board hosted a website comprising all the information related to the board. Consumers can lodge complaints on the website as well.
With the help of latest technologies, the board has institutionalized the Grievance Redressal System, and could achieve speedy redressal of complaints. The engrafted features of CMS like linking with citizen charter, automated escalation of complaints to senior officials, speedy communication etc., enhance accountability towards the consumers and facilitate senior officials monitoring the redressal system effectively.
The grievance redressal mechanism has been institutionalised through the centralised monitoring of customer complaints using IT, and furnished top management with a steady stream of information about performance by middle level managers or front-line staff. This, in turn, made it impossible for the front line staff to connive with lower-level managers to suppress negative information from customers filed at the board offices.

For further details, contact:
Mr. Shiv Das Meena, IAS
Managing Director
CMWSSB