Gandhinagar: After launching the CM WhatsApp chatbot where citizens can get in touch with the chief minister’s office (CMO), CM Bhupendra Patel decided to strengthen the grievance redressal mechanism in the state by launching a ‘chief minister’s helpline’. Grievances raised by citizens on the helpline will be directly addressed by a team of dedicated officers, sources in the govt said.
For this, the state govt allocated Rs 1 crore to the general administration department (GAD) in the budget for 2025-26. The budget document noted, “It is proposed to start a chief minister helpline facility for direct and effective communication between the citizens of Gujarat and the state govt to effectively solve the problems of the citizens and provide them with all kinds of guidance and to further promote transparency, accountability, and accessibility of the govt.”
A key officer close to the development informed that the CM suggested adopting measures to upgrade the ongoing SWAGAT Online service for the citizens. “The CM recommended starting a phone call-based service where any citizen can call and raise their grievances against any govt authority. The move is expected to curb corruption as well.”
“The helpline will be based on artificial intelligence (AI) technology and will record calls of the citizens and classify these on the basis of various criteria like distress, urgent, action call, etc. Trained personnel will handle the citizens’ calls and pass on the details to the concerned senior officers in the CMO and to the concerned officers,” officials said. Citizens who call the CM helpline will get an acknowledgement of their complaint. “The AI tools will also make suggestions on the distress level of the caller from the tone of the caller’s voice,” the official said.
Sources said that stringent follow-up will be done on each call received on the helpline. “The CMO will monitor follow-up action on each call and secretaries concerned will be required to personally follow up cases with local authorities. This is likely to be the first of its kind in the country, and the CM himself will conduct periodic reviews of calls on the helpline. The service will become operational shortly,” said an officer connected with the project.