For the first time in the country, the Mysore City Corporation (MCC) is all set to go the m-governance — mobile-governance — way.

A closed user group (UG) system has been specially designed by the civic body to attend to public grievances in a swifter manner. The system is to be launched soon. A brainchild of Commissioner P Manivannan, this state-of-the-art facility operates through an SMS integrated system.

Mysoreans can SMS their problems, which have been categorised into codes based on their kind and emergency, in a prescribed format. Problems relating to water, road damage, non-clearance of garbage, streetlights, illegal activities, stray animal menace and even official misconduct are some of the categorised varieties.

Identifying the complainant’s name, location and problem, a computer generated message is sent to the mobile phones of the field officials concerned, who are required to take action within a stipulated time.

Besides, a prescribed acknowledgement message with the attending officer’s name and contact number would be messaged back to the complainant, who, in turn, can check the status of their complaint. The system is equipped to detect unattended problems as well. They will be forwarded to the next official concerned. The erring official, meanwhile, will be taken to task.

Mr Manivannan told Deccan Herald that the system would certainly help the administration give its best to the citizens. The project is estimated to cost about Rs 10 lakh, he added.

Around 300 SIM cards have been purchased for the UG system and 200 of them have been activated and tested till now. But these cards won’t have outgoing call facility.

Corporation IT Department chief M Nanjundaswamy said a core team of troubleshooters would be working round the clock to check technical snags, if any.

Public can register their complaints on 94498 41200, 94498 41299 and 94498 41000 which have been networked to the server to automatically categorise the complaints. Officials are now being familiarised with it.

However, the MCC control room will continue to function as usual and cater to those who cannot make use of the new technique.