Karnataka CMO public grievance cell wins praise for quick action

A new initiative by the public grievance cell of the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) is winning accolades from citizens as complaints raised nearly a year ago and that were not resolved by the departments concerned are now being addressed within a few hours. 

The initiative collects grievances from the public through various means such as social media, letters, calls and emails, and follows them up with the line departments for quick resolution. 

"We also keep a close watch on news articles to check for any issues that are causing public inconvenience and register a suo motu complaint. The idea is to have a huge base to receive grievances,” explained Dr K Vaishnavi, Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to the chief minister. 

An e-file is created on the e-office for every grievance received and the departments concerned are held accountable. While the grievance redress portals that exist only assign the complaint to a particular department or an officer, the OSD stands out by following up with the departments to ensure that the issues are resolved. 

"We do not want to be yet another office that pushes files to another department. Also, we do not want to take up work bypassing the line departments. We only coordinate with them and get the work done. We constantly follow up with the departments,” Vaishnavi said. 

Citizens who have seen the work on the ground are relieved that the state finally has a reliable grievance redress unit. 

"Nearly 20-25 complaints that I raised with the OSD have been resolved within a few hours. For instance, close to 140 streetlights on Kanakapura Main Road were not working and we were following up with the BBMP for nearly seven months and there was hardly any response. But after the OSD stepped in, the issue was resolved within a few hours," said Srivatsa Vajapeyam, secretary of the Changemakers of Kanakapura, a consortium of residents' welfare associations (RWAs). 

There have been many other such success stories and the most significant among those was how a homealone old woman in Chitradurga, who was waiting for an electricity supply to her house for months, was provided with a power connection within three hours. 

The team also conducts data analysis to help prevent issues in the future and chalk out plans to pass on to the departments. 

"We classify every complaint into various buckets. Some need policy intervention and some others require a long-term solution. In such cases, we put up a file with the ACS directly,” Vaishnavi explained. 

According to a recent analysis by the department, the BBMP was able to resolve many complaints within an average time of 7.9 hours, pointing out that with follow-ups, the departments work their best. 

Contact details 

Citizens can raise any issues of public interest through these means:

Mail: [e-mail]

Call: 080 2203 3347

Write to: Dr Vaishnavi, Officer on Special Duty to CM, Room Number 241, Vidhana Soudha, Ambedkar Veedhi, Bangalore 560001

X (formerly Twitter): DM or tag @osd_cmkarnataka