Empowering citizens, 'Mo Sarkar' programme to be rolled out in Odisha

The Naveen Patnaik-led state government will be launching the citizen empowering 'Mo Sarkar' programme on Gandhi Jayanti this year.

The 'Mo Sarkar' initiative, which means 'My Government', is an important transformative initiative of the 5-T programme, which was introduced by Patnaik after he returned to power as the Chief Minister of Odisha for the fifth consecutive term. The 5-T mantra is based on the philosophy that transparency, teamwork, technology and time lead to transformation.As part of the soon-to-be-implemented programme, when a complainant visits any police station across the state for filing a complaint or petition, his or her mobile number will be uploaded by the police personnel present there onto the centralised database system. Within 24 hours of his/her visit, the complainant will receive an SMS stating that their complaint has been received and that their number has been uploaded onto the system.

However, in case no SMS is received, the complainant can ring up a toll-free number which would be widely publicised to generate awareness amongst the people. While on call, the complainant can narrate the details of his/her visit to the police station and the nature of their complaint. Their mobile number would be uploaded through this toll-free number onto the centralised system, hence eliminating any scope for the personnel at the police station to either not upload the mobile number of the complainant or not take cognizance of the complaint.

Patnaik highlighted the importance of 'Mo Sarkar' via video conference to senior police officers, from the rank of DGP to Inspectors, of about 635 Police Stations across Odisha.

"Mo Sarkar is an important component of the 5-T Vision and Odisha is the first state in the country to have launched such a programme. All police officers and police stations exist for the citizens," the statement quoted the Secretary of 5-T initiative, V Karthikeyan Pandian, as saying during the same meeting.

Pandian also strongly emphasised that it is the utmost duty of the police officers to treat citizens with dignity whenever they visit police stations, and their complaints need to be dealt in a professional, ethical and humane manner.

"This is the transformation that Mo Sarkar seeks to bring about," the Secretary added.

The initiative will be launched in two departments, namely health and police in Odisha.

The technology-enabled, citizen-centric approach undertaken in 'Mo Sarkar' programme aims at transforming police stations into more sensitized spaces and prompt.

Starting from October 2, the Chief Minister will personally make at least ten phone calls every day to gather feedback on the initiative. The phone numbers would be chosen randomly from among the huge database of complainants that have visited the police stations with their complaints.

Similarly, the police officers from the SP to the DGP will make phone calls to a specified number of complainants and check how they were treated at the police stations.

At the meeting, Odisha's Director-General of Police informed that pilot runs of this programme at police stations have already been initiated across the state over the past week and expressed readiness on part of the police for the initiative's launch.

-ANI