Didi Ke Bolo () is an initiative started by the

All India Trinamool Congress The All India Trinamool Congress (English: All India Grassroots Congress; AITC), colloquially the Trinamool Congress ( TMC) is an Indian political party which is predominantly active in West Bengal. The party is led by Mamata Banerjee, the cur ...

, that provides a platform for the people of

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

to directly lodge concerns or complaints to the Trinamool chairperson and state chief minister

Mamata Banerjee Mamata Banerjee (; born 5 January 1955) is an Indian politician who is serving as the eighth and current List of chief ministers of West Bengal, chief minister of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal since 20 ...

. , nearly 500,000 grievances were lodged using this platform.

Background

appointed

Prashant Kishor Prashant Kishor, colloquially known as PK, is an Indian political strategist and tactician. A public health expert by training, who worked with the United Nations for eight years before venturing into Indian politics and working as a political ...

as their political strategist after

2019 Indian general election General elections were held in India in seven phases from 11 April to 19 May 2019 to elect the members of the 17th Lok Sabha. Votes were counted and the result was declared on 23 May. Around 912 million people were eligible to vote, and voter ...

. Kishor conducted a series of meetings with the senior leaders of All India Trinamool Congress, and came up with the idea of "Didi Ke Bolo".

Implementation

A 250-members team runs an office for "Didi Ke Bolo" at Rajarhat,

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

. When someone calls to lodge a grievance, an executive receives the call, and notes down the contact information of the caller, and the nature of the complaint. Complaints are received from the project's official website also. Usually, a complainant gets a call back within 48 hours. The entire process is supervised by the chief minister's grievance cell.

Reception

According to

The New Indian Express ''The New Indian Express'' is an Indian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper published by the Chennai-based Express Publications. It was founded in 1932 as ''The Indian Express'', under the ownership of Chennai-based P. Varadarajulu Naid ...

, this campaign received good response from the people of West Bengal. nearly 500,000 grievances were lodged using this platform. In August 2019, a person in Durgapur, West Bengal was beaten up by after he lodged corruption complaint against a local political leader. On 8 August 2019, 20 Bengali families from

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

were rescued by complaining in "Didi Ke Bolo". Their houses were surrounded by flood water. Dilip Ghosh, BJP chief of West Bengal, claimed that the campaign is copied from BJP's Chai Pe Charcha.

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

leader

Somen Mitra Somendra Nath Mitra (31 December 1941 – 30 July 2020), popularly known as Somen Mitra, was an Indian politician. He was a member of the 15th Lok Sabha, elected from the Diamond Harbour constituency in West Bengal state in 2009 as a Trinamool ...

launched "Didike Bolchi" and asked several questions. Mitra remarked "We want to keep the questions and answers on record, which necessitated our own website".

References

External links

* * {{in lang, bn Government schemes in West Bengal 2019 in Indian politics Mamata Banerjee