Sambalpur, July 22: Lack of propagation has led to a lukewarm response to the Sambalpur Municipality’s grievance cell, which started functioning yesterday.

“We received only eight complaints yesterday. The majority of complaints deal with dilapidated conditions of the roads. The municipality would take initiative to address the problems on priority basis,” said vice-chairman of the municipality Siddharth Saha.

Explaining the reason for the poor response, Saha said: “This is the first time, the municipality opened a grievance cell for residents. The people are not yet aware of it.”

“However, we will take initiative to make people aware of the cell. We expect that more people will come to the cell with their complaints,” he said.

The civic body had decided to set up a grievance cell at its last council meeting.

It was also decided that the cell would function on the third Saturday of every month.

“It is of course a welcome decision by the civic body to open the grievance cell. The residents should take advantage of the facility and turn up to lodge their grievances. We hope that the problems, which have been lying unaddressed, will be resolved now,” said Ranjit Behera, a local resident.

“The residents can bring the problems related to sanitation, drainage system and other civic issues to the notice of the municipal authorities. Moreover, there are several other issues such as, old-age pension, BPL cards and so on, in which the beneficiaries often suffer because of the official apathy. Now with the cell in place, the residents can vent their grievance about red tape as well,” said Niwas Naik, another local resident.

“To win the confidence of people, the municipality should take prompt and effective action after receiving the complaints. Moreover, the civic body should also take proper initiative to propagate about the grievance cell, so that more people would come to know about the facility,” said Santosh Dash, another local resident.