Hotlines to keep Mamata in the loop

KOLKATA: After addressing macro issues like the Darjeeling accord and the Maoist menace, chief minister Mamata Banerjee has now got down to the very basics. She has decided to hook her administration through hotlines so that she could just pick up the phone and give out instructions directly. This will also be the chief minister's way of knowing things first hand.Going a step ahead of do-it-now, Mamata will now do it herself, from home and her office chamber.
After the recent dacoity-cum-murder at Bidhan Abasan that revealed loose ends in the traditional 100 phone line, the chief minister's decision is very contextual. Of course, the decision to establish hotlines with 100 bureaucrats, including the chief secretary, home secretary, districts magistrates, superintendents of police, inspector-generals of police, deputy inspector-generals and the police commissioner was taken before the recent incident. But now the government is trying to find out whether some instant alerts could be tagged with the Common User Group (CUG) through a software that enables the chief minister to know of law and order problems instantly.
A senior official at Writers' Buildings said: "A hotline or an automatic signaling service doesn't cost much. Only a little common sense was needed to install the system. I wonder why no one (read the erstwhile government) thought of it before."
The off-hook service would serve as a point-to-point communication link between the chief minister and the top notch in the administration even in the district level. The calls will be automatically directed to the pre-selected destination (the senior government officials) as soon as the CM takes the phone off the hook. "From now on, the CM will not have to ask her secretaries to dial the official's number. She will do it herself," said the official.
The dedicated lines are being set up in the most advanced way so that they serve as emergency service phones working 24 hours.
A meeting was recently held between additional-director-general of police (administration), Calcutta Telephones General Manager (enterprise business), SDO, telephones (Writers') and officer-in-charge (telephones). "The hotlines will help speed up administrative decisions and keep the CM abreast of important developments during the day," said an official.
The CM has refurbished the state secretariat with some of the most pragmatic decisions. The first thing she did was to ensure there was safe drinking water in Writers' Buildings. She has also set up a brand new press corner with wi-fi connectivity.