PANAJI
Confusion has prevailed among people ever since the office of Commissioner of State Tax (CST) was shifted from the old high court building to the newly constructed Goa Rajya Kar Bhavan,
While the CST official website shows the address of the old building, the official landlines have not been transferred to the new building. This has created problems for people who visit the CST office.
When the issue was brought to the notice of Commissioner of State Tax Hemant Kumar, he assured that the issue would be resolved soon.
The Goa Civic Action Forum (GOACAN) said this was not the first time that details were not updated for the benefit of the public.
“The last time, the forest department did the same thing. They did not change the address and the phone numbers on their website for two months. The people went to the old building, only to realise it was the wrong address and they then had to find transport to go to the new building at Altinho,” said Roland Martins, convenor of GOACAN.
“Government departments and corporations must remember that they are establishments to serve the people. They always need to examine if their actions or inactions will put the general public through hardships. Keeping their websites active and updated as well as preparing their citizen’s charter is important in this regard.”
Martins said another area of concern was the non-functional landlines due to non-payment of bills or for other reasons.
“During the last 15 months of the Covid pandemic, GOACAN has coordinated with the BSNL head office to fix many landlines of government offices,” said Martins.
“It is important that grievance officers are appointed and wide publicity is given regarding their contact details and HOD's must introduce newer ways to make their department consumer-friendly,” Martins added.
