As queries on e-pass to helplines mount, many calls go unanswered

As queries on e-pass to helplines mount, many calls go unanswered

Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com

Chennai:30.07.2020

Uncertainty over lockdown extension has kept government helplines busy.

Tollfree lines setup by Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency (TNeGA) on an average received around 9,000 calls everyday this week, according to official data.

This was almost triple the number of calls made to Amma Call Centre (1100), State Emergency Operation Centre (1070) and toll-free number 1800-425-1333 per day last month.

Anxious people called these numbers to clear their doubts about e-passes required for inter-district and inter-state travel. But many complained that hardly their calls were answered.

One among them, R Chidambaram from Tiruvarur, who was planning to travel to Chennai for his daughter’s wedding in a taxi, was not sure whether his driver can stay back for one day before returning home.

“I was not sure whether our swabs will be collected at Chennai check post and we will be put in institutional quarantine till the results were out. So, first I called 1100. They said that they don’t have these details and advised me to call 1070 by using the district pincode. No one attended the call even after waiting for more than 15 minutes,” he said.

Responding to it, a senior TNeGA official said that the problem was that the volume of calls they received of late was very heavy. All three helpline numbers have 13 to 16 lines each.

“So if all the 16 lines are busy, then it can handle another 16 calls in the waitlist. Anything beyond that will either get dropped or you won’t get any response. But it appears that nobody is picking up the calls,” the official added.

Meanwhile, the demand for e-passes too has increased this month. As the government relaxed lockdown norms, more shops and office spaces opened up increasing people movement. Since lockdown 1.0, TNe-GA has so far processed around 60 lakh e-pass applications and around one-third has been approved.