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Public Grievance - On Click of Mouse

Guest
Last updated: 03 December 2013
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PUBLIC GRIEVANCE – AN OVERVIEW

Public grievance

Days are Gone when anybody had to visit various government departments for lodging their grievance.  Now the government has simplified the procedure of lodging grievances and their redresal at appropriate time.In the era of online revolution, complaints are dealt and solve online. On a click of mouse your complaint can be lodged to the prescribed government department.

Online Public grievance portal is a step taken by government to change the old system of governance where the image of government employee is perceived as insensitive, aloof, corrupt and the administrative system as autocratic, opaque and with no work culture to a new system of governance where bureaucrats arefacilitator and regulator instead of an administrator, service provider and controller of development activities. The new role of civil service is need of the hour to create best environment and conditions in the country for building a nation of excellence.

Government of India, through its nodal agency Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG)has launched an online portal for online receiving and redressal of complaints.

DARPG has been making endeavors to:

- Effective and timely redress / settlement of citizens' grievances in a meaningful manner.

- Effectively coordinating with different Ministries and Departments of the Government and trying to eliminate the causes of grievances.

Grievance redressal Mechanism

Grievance Redress Mechanism is an important indicator to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of working of administration.

No administration can claim to be accountable, responsive and user-friendly unless it has established an efficient and effective grievance redress mechanism

There are primarily two designated nodal agencies in the Central Government handling these grievances. These agencies are:-

(i) Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions

(ii) Directorate of Public Grievances, Cabinet Secretariat

Role of Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances

i. To  undertake citizen-centric initiatives in the fields of administration reforms and public grievances in the Government so as to enable the Government machinery to deliver quality public services to the citizen in a hassle-free manner and eliminate the causes of grievance.

ii. To evaluate the effectiveness of the grievance redress machinery of the concerned government agency.

iii. It is the nodal agency in government for facilitating administrative improvements and reengineering of processes across the government.

iv. Areas under the ambit of DAPG areCitizen’s Charter initiative, Public Grievance Policy, Quality Management in Government,e-Governance, Review of Administrative Laws etc. Documentation and Dissemination of Best Practices, Organisation& Methods, Information & Facilitation Counters, Civil Services Reforms etc.

Directorate of Public Grievances (DPG)

Overview

The Directorate of Public Grievances was set up in the Cabinet Secretariat with effect from 01.04.88. Started from initially to look into inpidual complaints pertaining to four Central Government Departments which were more prone to public complaints presently  this Directorate is handling grievances pertaining to 16 Central Government Organisations.

Powers

i. The DPG working as an appellate body investigating grievances selectively and particularly those where the complainant had failed to get redress at the hands of internal machinery and the hierarchical authorities.

ii. It can call for the files and officers for discussion to see that grievance handling has been done in a fair, objective and just manner.

iii. Wherever the Directorate is satisfied that the grievance has not been dealt in such a manner, it makes suitable recommendations for consideration and adoption by the concerned Ministry/Department which are required to be implemented within a period of one month.

FUNCTIONING OF PUBLIC GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL MECHANISM

The Public Grievance Redress Mechanism functions in Government of India on a decentralized basis. State Governments and Central governments have their own public grievances redress mechanism.

Every department of central and State Government has their own public grievance redressal mechanism.

An officer of the level of Joint Secretary designated as Director of Grievances of the Ministry/Department/Organisation.

Directors of Grievances to call for files/reports and take decisions or review decisions already taken, in consultation with Secretary/HOD even in those areas which do not fall within his/her domain/charge.

The functioning of Public Grievance Redress Machineries in various Ministries/Departments/Organisations is regularly reviewed by a Standing Committee of Secretaries under the Chairmanship of Cabinet Secretary with Additional Secretary Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances as member-secretary.

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On Line Registration of Grievances

For Grievances pertaining to Central Government

1. Visit the website of http://www.pgportal.gov.in.

2. In the middle of page, see Citizen Corner .Click on “Lodge your Grievance here”.

3. A Grievance registration form will open.

4. Select the government and respective ministry to which you want to lodge grievance.

5. Fill the form with necessary details along.

6. Enter the grievance in respective message box. Remember the grievance shouldn’t exceed 4,000 words.

7. Submit the grievance after all necessary particulars are filled by clicking “SUBMIT” button.

8. Acknowledgement number will be generated. Note it down for the future reference. This number is useful to track the status of grievance.

9. Reminders and clarification can be sought by referring the above acknowledgement number.

For Grievances pertains to State Government

- Various state governments have their own public grievance portals. The procedure is same as prescribed above. However grievance against state government can be lodge through http://www.pgportal.gov.in by selecting the prescribed state govt.

- Public grievance portals of various state govt. are given below:

Rajasthan - http://sugamrpg.raj.nic.in/

Delhi -http://www.delhigovt.nic.in/griev_red.asp

Haryana -http://harsamadhan.gov.in/

Goa -  http://www.goa.gov.in/howdoi/onlinegrievance.html

J &K - http://jkgrievance.nic.in/

Kerala - http://www.cmcc.kerala.gov.in/fnd/index/index.php

Flowchart of Public Grievance:

Flaws in Public Grievances redressal mechanism:

1. There is no provision of fine for delay in redressal in grievance. While there is provision of fine in RTI act, 2005 which makes it effective and time bound.

2. Government is not so serious to promote the use of filing public grievance as there is lack of awareness on the part of government.

3. There is very long time limit of replying grievances i.e. three months which dilute the intention of complianee.

4. There is no accountability on the part of government to reply the grievances. There may be the chance the grievance is rejected or not redressed. Complianeehave nothing in hand to take action against it. However he can file reminders to the concerned ministry or department.

Benefits of Public Grievance:

1. Helps government in policy making.

2. Aware Government about the flaws and non-functioning of its departments

3. Helpful in detecting policy paralysis.

4. Fix responsibility in each case of delay, default and dereliction of duty, identified by Director of Grievances, and take appropriate action against concerned personnel. In addition, consider feasibility of prescribing specific penalty clauses for such failures.

By: Gaurav Arya


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Comments

12 years ago A K CHANDOK

I personally feel that more and more publicity should be given on such matters. It should be mandatory for all offices /organisations/private establishments falling under provisions of various Acts, to display this information on their Public Notice Boards for information of their employees/ general public. This will have a great impact beside building confidence to get their Grievances redressed speedily on one hand and on the other hand to creat a fear amongst those believing RedTapeism system.


12 years ago gspal

At pgportal for complaints against BSNL, Lucknow, U.P. towards unresolved tel and broadband problems does one file a complaint at Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances Or with the Department of Telecommunications Or with the State Government of Uttar Pradesh?


12 years ago Bindeshwar Sah

To, The competent concerned, Sir/Madam All the elections conducted by Election Commission of India and subsequent constitution of the respective legislative bodies and consequent formation of the Governments at the centre and states and passing/making order and decisions on the issues of elections by the Judiciary are unconstitutional and illegal on the following grounds:- (1) Late Dr. Rajendra Prasad was not the President of India from 26th January 1950 to the first due election of the President after the general elections in the country. The Constitutional provisions relating to the office of the President and his election under Part V Chapter I Articles 52 to 62 came into force on the commencement of the Constitution of India i.e.,26th January,1950 but he continued till the first election of the President without any legal and constitutional basis. That is constitutionally wrong and illegal. (2)Late Jawahar Lal Nehru was not the Prime-Minister of India from 26th January 1950 to the first due election of Lok Sabha in April-May 1952. The constitutional provisions relating to constitution of the Lok Sabha Part V Chapter II came into force on the commencement of the constitution of India.The interim /provisional parliament from 26th January, 1950 to the first general election of the Lok Sabha was constitutionally wrong and illegal. (3) As the consequences of the above stated facts the Passing and enforcement of the two election laws namely the R.P.Act. 1950 and 1951 are constitutionally wrong and illegal and as such they have no mandate to be implemented as the constitutionally constituted Parliament was not there at that time. (4) The similar is the case with constitution of State Legislative bodies in the respective states and formation the respective Governments in the States during 26th January 1950 till the first constitutional legislative election in the state. (5) The Supreme Court decisions reported as Air 1959 SC 1318 para 12, Air 1972 SC 2284 para 12 and Air 1999 SC 1723 para 25 mandate that the candidate must be an elector in the constituency for M.P.(Lok Sabha directly elected) and Vidhan Sabha( directly elected) elections. But Election Commission of India despite being respondent party in 1972 judgement and having full knowledge and possession of the decisions having been produced by me is adamant not to implement the law laid down by the Apex Court and has been conducting unconstitutional and illegal elections permitting non elector in the constituency to contest elections. Thereby elections are totally against the constitutional judicial mandate of the country.It is illegally permitting the outsider to contest election of Lok Sabha in a state. The Meira Kumar being SC of Delhi has been getting benefit of reservation in different stated in the elections of the Lok Sabha which is totally against Article 330 of the Constitution of India. Even the Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and similarly situated other members of the Lok Sabha are not elector in their respective constituencies and even outsider to the concerned states. (6) If the elections are illegal, subsequent constitution of the legislative bodies and the formation of the Government and decisions of the Judiciary are unconstitutional and illegal. It is required in the interest of justice to take immediate needful action to save the constitutional democracy of the country. With thanks. Bindeshwar Sah Advocate


12 years ago Prof Wg Cdr G Kumar

The above information is incorrect, e.g.: i) There is no email ID on the website of Ministry of Law & Justice to lodge a Complaint -- when a Sr. Lawyer became its Minister, he even suspended his personal email ID (which he had as a Lawyer) so that he could not be accessed online. ii) Please view Hindi version (Constitutionally, our National language) of the official website of the same Ministry -- the Devnagri alphabets of several Hindi words are disjointed! iii) Hardly any Member of Parliament views the emails sent to his/her Inbox of the email ID provided by NIC. iv) A Law Minister had promised to put in place a Free Subject-wise Online Judgment System by 15.08.2012 -- he was shifted from his Post for acting tough against some oil mafia, and no such system was given to the Country even on 15.08.2013! The List is endless. Only Dr Shashi Tharoor has put in place an elaborate and efficient system to reply to your emails.


12 years ago Mayank Patel

this is great service ... i use this against BSNL and to my surprise my work done in 24hours.. which is pending fro 7 days... friends you know what my problem is ??? my pre-paid sim card service off after working 4-5 days... 1) i simply ask two question to bsnl office .. a) why my phone no disconnect. ( they say document not received.. my counter question if document not received then how 5 days its wroks after activation..) 2) when it is started. ( same answer ) then i say i will complain about it... bsnl person say " ho karna he karlo" then i just put my problem on above site with officer name.. and they contact me with in 2 hours and next day my card activated... if you are correct then gov. also help you..


12 years ago Isaac Gabriel

The authoriities responsible do not care for accountability,and the redressal mechanism compromise with the usualand conventional replies to the complaints.Each case ahould be analysed with regard to responsibility and penalysed,the grievance redressal system at any level will serve no purpose.


12 years ago G.L.N. Prasad

They have (DARPG) excellent book. These are guidelines and have no legal implications. None in DARPG are serious about this PGRMS. I went personally to all the dept., and you may wonder, they say that DARPG is not having any powers and neither Ministries. This is an infant stage. At facilitation center at New Delhi (Even this office, one can not locate and even those employees are not aware of the office) and out of 5 regular employees, you can always find only one at any time they have appointed a blind person, and you have to read and explain for an hour or two. He simply advises Court is the better solution. If you are not convinced, he makes a call to DARPG official and he advises you that these are not directives and court is a better solution. I personally knew persons who filed 30 grievances and never got even one redressed. None of the Ministries even know the days they have to hear grievances in a week and such timings. This is not with one or two depts., but experience with many. Every Grievance officer say that they have no powers. One lower division clerk signs the ack and disposes the issue with a silly comment whereas grievance has to be disposed by an official higher. There is no competent authority. Unless lokpal bill is made as an act, one can not expect fruit ful results.


12 years ago MANOJ KUMAR

No use of this service. Any service which can penalise the beuracarts will only be effective. rather then wasting the Govt Money.


12 years ago Vishal Luthra

My personal experience from pgportal.gov.in is not good. No body is taking care what we are posting. If a person be in trouble in that case this service is poorest


12 years ago Vishal Luthra

My personal experience from pgportal.gov.in is not good. No body is taking care what we are posting. If a person be in trouble in that case this service is poorest


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