Public grievance redressal time reduced to 30 days from 45: Jitendra Singh

Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Sunday said the time for redressal of public grievances received on an online portal has been reduced from 45 to 30 days.

He said this decision is in keeping with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's emphasis on effective implementation of public grievance redressal mechanism with disposal of grievance within minimum possible time, but with maximum possible satisfaction of the complainant.

Singh, the Minister of State for Personnel, said an order issued by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievance (DARPG) also states that a complaint received from a citizen will not be closed until an appeal filed against it is disposed of.

Last year, the DARPG had reduced the maximum time limit to 45 days from 60 days to resolve public grievances, a statement issued by the Personnel Ministry said.

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Singh said under the leadership of PM Modi, every attempt is being made to implement an effective public grievance redressal system and bring about administrative reforms at par with global standards to promote satisfaction among the people.

The minister also pointed out that in various monthly 'Pragati' (Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation) review meetings, the prime minister himself reviews the status of public grievances.

Singh said the twin factors of people's satisfaction and timely redressal of grievances has led to about a 10-fold increase in public grievance cases since this government came to power in 2014, and this also reflects the trust citizens have shown in the government.

The main mantra of the Modi government is to reach out to the last man in the last queue with all the benefits of welfare schemes, he said.

Singh said the latest order mandates that the grievances received on the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) -– an online portal -- shall be resolved promptly as soon as they are received but within a maximum period of 30 days.

In case the redress is not possible within the prescribed time-frame due to the circumstances such as sub judice matters/policy issues etc, an interim/appropriate reply shall be given to the citizen, he said.

Singh said this measure will go a long way in furthering the citizen-centric governance, as the government is ensuring that grievances are disposed of as expeditiously as possible.

Singh informed that CPGRAMS 7.0 has also enabled auto-routing of grievances to last mile grievance officers, along with improved data analytics using digital dashboards.

He added that as many as 30,23,894 grievances were received in 2021 (of which 21,35,923 were disposed of), 33,42,873 in 2020 (23,19,569 disposed of), and 27,11,455 in 2019 (16,39,852 disposed of).

In its latest order, the DARPG has asked all departments to appoint nodal grievance resolution officers (GROs) and to empower them adequately to resolve public complaints.

They may appoint as many GROs as deemed necessary based on the number of public grievances received under the overall supervision of the nodal grievance resolution officer.

After closure of a grievance, citizens have the option to submit their feedback and file an appeal and to obtain the feedback on the quality of grievance disposed, an outbound call centre has been started, the order said.

All citizens will be contacted by the call centre to obtain feedback, the statement said.

The order states that citizens will be provided the option to file an appeal if they are not satisfied with the grievance disposed of and the feedback received from citizens by the call centre will be shared with ministries or departments who would be responsible to deal with the feedback and to make systemic improvements.

To institutionalise the mechanism of grievance resolution and to ensure quality disposal, the secretary of the ministry/department may review the disposal process in senior officers meetings, the DARPG said.

Apart from this, ministries/departments may also monitor complaints which may be raised in print, electronic and social media, it added.