Flagship grievance redressal system gets 7,000 complaints

A month after it was launched, the government’s flagship project Janaspandana, an integrated public grievance redressal system (IPGRS), has received over 7,000 applications from citizens.

Of these, some 5,700 grievances are pending redressal, according to data available on the IPGRS portal.

Almost a third of the issues raised on the platform are related to revenue and RDPR departments. Among districts, Bengaluru Urban has raised the highest number of complaints on the platform.

The grievances were raised through various platforms such as the 1902 helpline, Janaspandana mobile app, the web portal, Janaspandana Kendras, Bapuji Seva Kendras and others.

Of the grievances raised on the IPGRS platform, authorities have disposed of 1,312 - around 18.67%.

Of these, 518 were escalated to senior officials, as the complaints or applications were not disposed of by officials at the lower rungs of the hierarchy.

Data also shows that 487 grievances were disposed of by last mile functionary (LMF) officers, classified as L1 under IPGRS. Their peers - L2 - addressed 300 cases, while L3 - the topmost officials under the system - cleared 518.

Among the 5,712 pending grievances, more than half - 3,044 - were pending at the LMF level, while 1,293 were pending at L2 and 1,447 were pending at the L3 level.

Grievances related to revenue department topped the list with 1,271 applications, followed by rural development and panchayat raj department with around 1,150. Third was the Home department with around 850 grievances.

Bengaluru Urban, Belagavi and Dakshina Kannada were the top three districts in terms of grievances raised through IPGRS.

Speaking to DH, principal secretary (revenue) Tushar Giri Nath said grievances raised in IPGRS were mainly related to land disputes and surveys.

A few of them are with respect to services (offered by the department), but they are small in number, he said.

On the low percentage of grievances disposed, he said that the department was pursuing all the applications filed.

“The objective is to disclose at what stage an application is, so that the issue can be redressed quickly,” he said.

The whole system is designed in such a manner that any unresolved grievance escalates to the top level of functionary.

“Earlier, it was a top down approach. Now, it is going directly to LMF. If they do not complete it on time, it will come to the attention of higher officials,” he said, adding that the project would see more progress in addressing grievances in the near future.