Patnaik steps to speed up grievances disposal

By Prafulla Das

BHUBANESWAR, MAY 26. The Grievance Cell of the Orissa Chief Minister, Mr. Naveen Patnaik, is all set to scale new heights in order to ensure speedy disposal of people's grievances in every nook and corner of the State.

A few weeks from now, Mr. Patnaik, will have live interaction with Collectors of different districts through the Gramsat project to find out whether justice was being done to those who came to his Grievance Cell with genuine grievances.

Though the initial results were not satisfactory, the Chief Minister is now happy over improvement in the Cell's functioning during the past few months and increase in the rate of disposal of grievances. The practice of Mr. Patnaik sitting at one place and hearing the people's grievances has been changed. He now goes to the hall where the people are waiting and talks to each one of them.

``I am glad that things are improving fast,'' Mr. Patnaik said after hearing the people's grievances at the Cell this morning. Since Mr. Patnaik lives in his own house, the Cell functions from the building meant to be the Chief Minister's official residence.

Apart from exclusive staff and officials and computerisation of the records, what comes in handy for Mr. Patnaik in issuing orders and initiating action on the genuine complaints is the presence of the Minister for Public Grievances and Pension Administration, Mr. Samir Dey, throughout the hearing along with top officials of his Department.

For the `A' category petitions, Mr. Patnaik passes orders on the spot on which action is taken within 48 hours. The petitions which usually fall in this category pertains to alleged police excesses, dowry cases and financial assistance from the CM's Relief Fund for treatment of serious ailments.

Of the remaining two categories, the petitions which could not be disposed of quickly are put under `B' category and referred to the Secretaries or Heads of Departments or District Collectors concerned for disposal within 30 days. The remaining petitions, which are mostly for favours, are put under `C' category and rejected.

The Chief Minister's Grievance Cell, which was started on April 23 last year, functions on all Saturdays and a total of 38 sessions has been conducted so far. The Cell has received a total of 7,803 applications till date out of which 4,877 have been disposed of and action has been initiated on another 1,203 petitions, according to Mr. Jagar Singh, Secretary, Department of Public Grievances and Pension Administration.

To those who come seeking employment, since no jobs could be provided by the Government, a booklet is given containing information about various self-employment schemes.

Since the Cell is attracting people from all parts of the State, a number of measures are being taken to make it more effective. ``We hope that proper functioning of the Cell would send a signal to all levels of administration to take the people's grievances with the required seriousness and sincerity,'' said Mr. Dey.

Mr. Dey is hopeful that once the Chief Minister starts interacting with the District Collectors through the Gramsat system, there will be a drastic change in the functioning of various government departments at the ground level. Mr. Patnaik will interact with the Collectors after completing his hearing at the Grievance Cell every Saturday, he said.

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