Mr. Gong
How long does it take to solve a problem that has existed for several years? Recently, the Linfen City Natural Gas Co., Ltd. in Shanxi Province gave an answer: One or two days is enough -- provided that this problem has attracted the attention of public opinion.
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Video source: @长江云新闻 Weibo
In early December, a number of netizens posted videos reflecting that in the Yaodu District Business Department of Linfen City Gas Co., Ltd., many people braved the cold in the early morning to wait in line for payment. In subsequent media interviews, a resident said that in the previous half month, she and her family had queued for two or three hours four times without successfully paying the bill, and then the family ran out of gas and could only rely on induction cookers to cook.
According to the relevant staff of the Yaodu District Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau and the City Gas Company, most of the company's users use old-fashioned mechanical gas meters and cannot pay online. Replacing the smart IoT meter requires a large amount of money, and due to some difficulties in operation, the company is temporarily unable to raise the cost of replacing the meter.
On the other hand, the city gas company has more than 15,000 "coal-to-gas" subsidy users, because many residents have recently paid heating fees and applied for "coal-to-gas" subsidies, resulting in a long queue at business outlets.
It sounds like the reasons why it is difficult for residents in Yaodu District to buy gas are quite objective. However, as the interview deepened, some obviously unreasonable situations gradually came to the forefront. For example, in the face of a large number of "coal-to-gas" users, the gas company only opens one business site to accept payment and apply for subsidies, and this business site is the only place where some ordinary residents can buy gas. According to netizens, the business place is often only open to one or two windows, and the business hours are 8:30-11:00 in the morning and 14:30-17:00 in the afternoon.
With such an imbalance between supply and demand, it is unusual not to queue.
"People's Livelihood Security" by Xu Jun published by Xinhua News Agency
Some media have found that since 2019, similar situations have been staged in the local area every winter. Until now, there is a message on the message board of the leaders of People's Daily Online that netizens in November last year "ask the leaders of Yaodu District to pay attention to the difficulty of residents' gas payment in autumn and winter".
Since the problem has been going on for several years, it is not easy to solve. Interestingly, within two or three days of this incident attracting public attention, the situation changed rapidly. The local government set up a working group to solve the problem of people queuing up to pay and receive subsidies on the spot, and the gas company set up payment points, extended business hours, and arranged personnel to help "coal-to-gas" users pay and apply for subsidies.
Almost immediately, the situation of "queuing in the early morning" and "having money to pay the fee" no longer exists.
Such a stark before and after comparison is enough to show that what relevant departments and enterprises lack is not a solution to the problem, but a positive attitude to solve the problem.
At present, many places in the mainland are ushering in a new round of cold wave this winter. In this context, whether or not you can use heating and gas smoothly directly affects the daily life of the people, and is related to the people's sense of gain, happiness and security.
As a unit that ensures the basic operation of the city, the gas company already shoulders more social responsibilities. The untimely replacement of gas meters objectively leads to the inability of citizens to pay online, and the gas company should have considered the problem of offline queuing in advance and made relevant plans. However, not only did it not predict the difficulties, but even when it was inconvenient for the people to pay the bills, the enterprises did nothing from top to bottom, and even some window staff "educated" the masses to "come to line up early if they want to pay", and the difference in service awareness can be seen.
Judging from the report, in the past few years, the people in Yaodu District have reported the problem of difficulty in paying gas bills in autumn and winter through various forms, and the local government departments should not be unaware. Gas is an important part of municipal services, and relevant departments should have timely understood and verified the problem, supervised and assisted the gas company to solve the problem. Judging from the actual situation, it is clear that the work of the local government departments is not in place.
"The Mayor's Mailbox" Becomes a "Furnishing" by Xinhua News Agency by Zhu Huiqing
In recent years, in order to keep close contact with the masses and collect their opinions and suggestions, various localities have opened citizen hotlines, "mayor's mailboxes" and "citizen message boards". However, if the government department only replies "received" and "attaches great importance to it", the masses cannot see the effect of the situation, and no matter how many channels of interaction there are, they will only be reduced to decorations. It can be seen that the "difficulty in payment" has existed for a long time, and the consequence is not only that the people's homes are cold, but also that they are cold.
Like many livelihood issues that have arisen before, the attention of public opinion has put pressure on the Yaodu district government and the gas company involved, which in turn has contributed to the solution of the problem. However, public opinion cannot touch every corner of government work and enterprise operations, and such a solution is not the best policy. The best outcome of this matter would be if this turmoil could allow the local people to truly reflect and summarize, self-pressure in future work, and achieve long-term improvement.
Source: China Industry Network