The maximum times need to resolve a complaint has been reduced from 60 days to 21 days under the grievance redressal system. So far, the deadline for addressing a public grievance was 30 days.
In 2020, the government reduced the timeline to 45 days, further to 30 days in 2022.
“The 10-step reforms initiated in CPGRAMS have significantly brought down the average resolution time. Keeping this in view, the maximum redressal time advised by DARPG for cases in CPGRAMS is further reduced to 21 days,” the government directive says. This year, so far, the Centre has been able to dispose of a grievance in an average of just 13 days, News18 has learnt.
What is a Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System?
Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) is an online platform available to the citizens 24×7 to lodge their grievances to the public authorities on any subject related to service delivery.
Every ministry and state have role-based access to the system. The grievances received by the department are forwarded to the concerned ministries or government departments, who are dealing with the fundamental functions linked with the grievance for redress under intimation to the complainant.
Issues that are not taken up for redress are subjudice cases, personal and family disputes, RTI matters, anything that impacts territorial integrity of the country and suggestions.
What are the Functions of CPGRAMS?
• The system mainly aims to enable the submission of grievances by citizens of the country anytime and from anywhere.
• The department aims at picking up a minimum of 1,000 grievances per year, based on the seriousness of the issue, follows them, and solve them until completely solved.
• Once a grievance is raised on the web portal, a specific registration number is generated and any citizen who raises a grievance can follow up the progress through the personalised registration number.
• If any citizen has any complaint against the Government, its ministers, or any department, they can approach the CPGRAMS to get a faster solution to their problems.
• The CPGRAMS will enable the online lodging of grievances by citizens to the concerned organisations which can be linked to their official website.
• CPGRAMS also provides an appeal facility to the citizens if they are not satisfied with the resolution by the Grievance Officer.
• After the closure of grievance, if the complainant is not satisfied with the resolution, he/she can provide feedback. If the rating is ‘Poor’ the option to file an appeal is enabled.
• The status of the appeal can also be tracked by the petitioner with the grievance registration number.
How is a Complaint Resolved?
First, the complaint or the grievance is examined at the local office. From here, the government officials provide an acknowledgment letter to the citizens who have filed the complaint.
One remark is that ‘No Action Is Needed’: This means that the filed complaint has not been accepted, and the citizen who filed the complaint is notified of the same in the acknowledgment letter along with providing a reason for the rejection.
Another remark is that ‘It Is Taken Up With The Subordinate Organisation’: If the grievance is accepted, it is forwarded to either one or multiple subordinate officers based on the level and seriousness of the complaint raised. Then, it is tracked finally till the issue is resolved completely.
What is the Latest Directive by the Centre?
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interaction with the secretaries on June 29 to make the existing process more sensitive, accessible and meaningful to the citizens, grievances shall be redressed under “whole of the government approach”.
“This means that in no case grievance shall be closed by stating ‘Does not pertain to this Ministry/ Department/Office’ or its equivalent language. Efforts shall be made to transfer the same to the right authority if the subject of the grievance does not pertain to the receiving Ministry,” the directives say.
Moreover, citizens can be asked to submit additional documents or papers under the existing mechanism.
The Centre has also asked for an integrated user-friendly grievance filing platform. Currently, CPGRAMS is the common open platform for registration of complains by citizens on any issue against any public authority in Union government or states/UT. But ministries and departments, apart from states, also have their own public grievance platforms for services rendered by them.
The government will also appoint a nodal officer with independent charge to ensure timely and qualitative disposal of public grievances. A dedicated grievance cell shall also be set up in every ministry. On the resolution of a grievance, an SMS/email is sent on the registered mobile number and email address of the citizen.