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Nagpur: The Forest Department, with the aim of providing relief and redressing people’s grievances, had launched launched the state-wide ‘Hello Forest’ helpline 1926 in the month of January. The call centre was inaugurated by Tata Sons Interim Chairman Ratan Tata in the presence of State Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar.
However, the day the 24X7 patterned call centre got operational, it was flooded with callers resulting in continuous call waiting problem. Even the Forest Department officials were finding it difficult to get connected with the call centre. After dozens of calls, the call centre gets hooked. When contacted, the Statistics Department of Forest Department said that three employees have been appointed in one shift to receive calls. The call centre is being run in three shifts. However, looking to the call waiting problem, the department is mulling increasing the number of employees to nine instead of the present three employees.
It may be recalled that the call centre has been launched for the entire state. Even though it is set up in Goregaon, Mumbai, the maximum monitoring is done by Nagpur-based Forest Department Headquarters. Callers can phone in emergencies, as well as for general or eco-tourism related queries. Any time a particular query or call is made, a forest official will be assigned to ensure and report the action initiated over the same.
