Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa sprang a surprise on Tuesday by launching Amma Call Centre, a unique service under the brand name Amma for 24X7 relief. Hereafter people in the State need not frequent Government offices to register or air their grievances.

All they need to do is dial 1100, a 24X7 toll free number. When the call centre executive picks up the phone at the other end, the caller should identify himself/herself and state the grievances. It will be noted down by the executive and the details would be forwarded to the concerned officials either by email or by SMS.

The Amma Call Centre was inaugurated by Jayalalithaa on Tuesday through video conferencing. “If there is a delay in the call centre executive attending to your call, please do not worry. You just keep the phone down. The call centre executive will ring you back when she/he is free from the call being attended by them. You give a missed call and you will get a call back,” Santhosh Babu, Officer on Special Duty in the Chief Minister’s Office, told The Pioneer.

Dr Babu, a medical doctor-turned-IAS officer, said the Amma Call Centre received thousands of calls on the opening day itself. “Right now, we have facilities to handle 15,000 calls per day. We will streamline everything in the next few days and I hope the calls will get stabilised too,” Dr Babu added.

The complaints/grievances, according to Dr Babu, are of different kinds. “If you are an unemployed graduate and looking out for a job, we will not be able to help. But if there is a delay in the processing of your application for any services, the Amma Call Centre will forward the concerned official and action would be taken soon. We are here to address genuine complaints and attend to any shortcomings,” he explained.

A Government release said the Amma Call Centre uses the Computer Telephony Integration and Voice logger System for immediate and effective solution to various problems of the people under one roof.