PM inaugurates ‘Hello Sarkar’ service, hotline service to operate round-the-clock

Kathmandu, Sept 3: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ today inaugurated the operation of the ‘Hello Sarkar’ or ‘Hello Government’ service 24 hours in three shifts daily. The hotline service was in operation at the Singha Durbar, the Secretariat of the Federal Government, since the last 12 years. The Prime Minister also carried out an inspection and monitoring of the Hello Sarkar (Hello Government) chamber at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, Singha Durbar.

The service has been extended to three shifts. Before this it used to operate only during the office hours through the Nepal Telecom phone line. From today people can also call in the hotline through NCell network and relay their grievances after the extension of time. The Government Chief Secretary, secretaries, chiefs of departments, officials of ministries and central government entities handling grievances and employees working in the Hello Government room were present on the occasion.

The complaints and grievances can be relayed to Hello Government via phone, e-mail, facebook, Twitter, Portal, Viber, Whatsapp and other digital means. The Hello Government Desk will immediately address the grievances and provide information about the same to the plaintiff. A work time-table has been prepared for three shifts and staff managed accordingly to operate the service 24 hours. Twenty-five employees, including three employees of the Under Secretary rank, have been deputed to operate the Hello Government service.

Arrangements have also been made to also facilitate in resolving the problems by sending the complaints and grievances received at the Hello Government to the bodies concerned, considering their nature. The complaints related to the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers will be addressed right away. Chief Secretary Dr Baikuntha Aryal said that a ‘rapid response’ team has been formed for addressing the complaints and grievances. The team will monitor whether the complaints referred to the bodies concerned have been acted upon or not and also take initiatives for addressing them. On the occasion, the Prime Minister instructed the Hello Sarkar team to respond to public grievances seriously and address them accordingly.

“The more the authority responds to citizen’s issue, the more democracy will get strengthened.” “There are opinions that the public grievances were not well addressed by the Hello Sarkar. I hope that there would be no more complain regarding its delivery with the launching a three-shift service.” On the occasion, the Prime Minister responded to a complaint from Dolakha and directed people concerned to address that Hello Sarakar aiming to further consolidate the government-citizens relations and engage the people in the governance system was launched 12 years ago. From today, it has been 24-hour.

The Prime Minister expressed his hope that the expansion of the service would contribute to further strengthening the government-citizens relations and to making the public service system more accountable to the people. As he asserted, it should be the top concern of the government to address grievances in regard with public service and to address them promptly. Underlining the need of building an effective connectivity to find an interactive platform for public bodies for the promotion of good governance, the Prime Minister added that the transparency and accountability in public service system was the top concern of democratic nations in the world as it was vital to win the confidence of citizens.

The Prime Minister reminded that the launching of Hello Sarkar was based on the realization that the government must to listen to the citizens to win their confidence towards the public bodies as per the concept of open governance system in the modern era. “It is natural that citizens have positive expectation toward the current governance system. In view of the fact that the distance between people and the government goes wide if complaints and inquiries surfaced amid people’s these expectations and disappointments and dissatisfaction of people towards the state pile up, I have directed constructive reforms in making the Hello Sarkar campaign more effective as a means of promoting good governance since I took the government’s leadership.

Similarly, I have committed in the parliament to making the campaign more effective.” For the operation of the campaign, an agreement with the university has been reached, and there is a provision that people can be hired as interns. Complaints, inquiries and suggestions are accepted through Nepal Telecom and NCell, and the call recording system has been developed. There is a need to expand the campaign to the provincial and local levels but not only limit to the centre, it has been said.

“The first condition for good governance is mutual relations between the government and people should be consolidated. Bringing any reforms in the service delivery and talking about good governance do not make any difference if we fail to make people feel the presence of the government,” said the PM, adding, “So, I directed all bodies of the government to deliver putting the issue of addressing complaints of people at the centre. Complaints that may be small or unimportant for us may directly connect with daily life of general people.” He also requested general people to directly affiliate with the campaign, put complaints and inquiries, provide creative suggestion and information on the formation of policies and interact by becoming a member of the campaign.