Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System

Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System

Emblem of India
Grievance Redressal Mechanism overview
Headquarters	New Delhi
Ministers responsible	Prime Minister of India Dr Jitendra Singh, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions
Grievance Redressal Mechanism executive	Ms Prisca Mathew, Executive Deputy Secretary
Parent department	Department of Administrative Reforms and Public grievances
Website	pgportal.gov.in

Public Grievances Redressal is one of the flagship initiatives for the reformation in governance started by the Indian central government through addressing the grievances of general public. It was created in June 2007 by the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances. Under the public grievance mechanism any citizen of India can raise their problems, grievance or pleas to the central govt and state government Ministries and Departments. Grievances can be submitted to all important portfolio ministers and departments. The system has been designed in-house by the National Informatics Centre team. It has a telephonic feedback feature also.

Prime Minister is the supreme head of the public grievances. Jitendra Singh is currently the Minister for Independent Charge for grievances public personnel and pension Department and Sumita Dasgupta is its deputy secretary.

Low effectiveness

Despite the Prime Ministers efforts, the grievance redressal mechanism is said to be yet not effective since most grievances are either rejected, disposed or closed. The bureaucrats are said to dispose pleas and grievances without resolving or addressing the issue. Though government is taking effective measures to help people some of the bureaucrats in the system do not help in sound performance of these schemes.

An example of this could be seen on the case of slain right to information (Right to Information Act) activist Satish Shetty who was murdered in Talegaon Dabhade in Pune on 13 January 2010. Sandeep Shetty, brother of Satish Shetty, said that in July 2015, about a month-and-a-half previously, he had sent all details of the case to “pgportal.gov.in”, the official web portal for public grievances redressal. He said he got a reply saying “Your grievance has been registered vide registration number PMOPG/E/2015/0119691. Please quote the same in your future correspondence.” “But there is no progress further”. The central government bureaucrats tend to send to the state grievance readdressing mechanisms who are more "less" effective and closes the case with no satisfactory response e.g. Jansunwai U.P.

Least effectiveness

Despite several complaints in CPGRAM against central administration, the resolution of complaints take much longer. The concerned department officer is prompt in opening the complaints but the closure is pretty adhoc and does not tend to resolve the underlying issue.

Constructive feedback

Some feedback for the issues in CPGRAM are as follows: 1. There should be predetermined time for a resolution of case or a request for extension. 2. Compliants should pass through a dedicated workflow if unattended for few days. 3. There needs to be an escalation mechanism and regular reporting of the department to the Prime Minister. 4. Accountability of the department should be clearly established.