eChhawani down for residents, pleas to Cantt authorities fall on deaf ears

Hyderabad: With eChhawani portal remaining non-functional for over a month, Secunderabad Cantonment residents claimed routine civic services have come to a standstill, prompting their welfare body to seek urgent administrative intervention.The eChhawani portal, a unified portal for 61 cantonment boards across the country for registering complaints, tracking grievances and applying for essential civic services and certificates, has been under maintenance and inaccessible to the public. Though other tabs on the portal were functional, the ones related to cantonments threw up ‘404 Not Found' error message. Residents allege that the prolonged downtime has left them without a structured mechanism to lodge complaints or monitor service requests, disrupting day-to-day civic engagement.
The issue assumes greater significance in the Secunderabad Cantonment area, where there have been no elected board members since 2020. In the absence of public representatives to directly approach for redressal, citizens have been largely dependent on the online portal to raise concerns ranging from sanitation and water supply to documentation and civic certifications.Highlighting the growing inconvenience, Confederation of Cantonment Residents Welfare Association, Secunderabad (CCRWA), submitted a formal representation to Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) on Feb 23. Addressed to chief executive officer Arvind Dwivedi, the letter stated that the portal's non-availability has severely hampered residents' ability to access essential services and seek grievance redressal.In its representation, the association urged the authorities to restore the toll-free civic helpline that was operational earlier, at least as an interim measure until the technical issues with the eChhawani portal are resolved. The body maintained that reviving the helpline would provide residents with an alternative channel to register complaints and obtain necessary services without undue hardship.Responding to the concerns, authorities stated that the eChhawani portal is currently under maintenance and efforts were underway to address the technical issues. However, no specific timeline for restoration has been announced.With the digital gateway to civic services offline and no elected representatives in place, residents say the delay in restoring access was compounding administrative bottlenecks, underscoring the need for swift remedial action.