The Hindu : Grievance cell to be set up

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 18, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Grievance cell to be set up

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, JAN.17. Ushering in an era of administrative reforms aimed at strengthening the citizens' movement and fine-tuning the response levels of the Government machinery, the Delhi Government is toying with the idea of setting up a "Grievance Cell'' and appointing one Grievance Redressal Officer for various public dealing departments. To make the entire mechanism effective, entry in the Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs) is also proposed for senior officers.

Giving this information here, the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, said it was important to institutionalise the system in every Government department, specially the public dealing departments. Such redressal machinery would be put in place for five departments in the first phase including the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, Delhi Jal Board, Social Welfare, SC/ST Directorate, Police Commissioner and Power Department. The experience of the past five years has shown that most of the complaints received in the Chief Minister's Grievance Redressal Cell pertained to these departments.

She said the weakest link in response to complaints were officers of the MCD followed by the Engineering Wing of the Delhi Jal Board and the Public Works Department. "I have asked the Chief Secretary to look into all these issues and put in place such a mechanism at the earliest. The Chief Minister's Grievance Cell should be the last resort for such complaints,'' she added.

Under the new structure, it is proposed to have one Grievance Redressal Officer in the personal office of the Commissioner, MCD, Chief Executive Officer, Delhi Jal Board, Secretary, Social Welfare, Commissioner of Police and Principal Secretary (Urban Development). The officer would not only redress grievances but also function as the `chief coordinator' for ensuring action taken on the applications received. He should also have the powers to call for the necessary files from the various Departments within the organisation in order to take necessary orders from the Heads of the Department. It is proposed the designated officer would be accessible to all members of the public on all working days and be exclusively given the charge of grievance redressal for necessary follow up.

Besides this, in other Government departments, it is proposed to have a senior officer to deal with grievances of the public for an hour everyday. In the absence of the officer, a link office should be designated so that the continuity of public hearing is not disrupted. The public hearing should not be delegated to the personal staff or junior level officers. Apart from this, a time-bound methodology should be worked out by the designated officer for response to be given to the applicant. Similarly, details of the number of people approaching the department for grievance redressal should be systematically noted and monthly report be compiled and submitted to the competent authority. The Chief Secretary should review the functioning of such mechanism in every department, local bodies and autonomous bodies.

It is also proposed that a complete monthly report on the nature and number of grievances received, attended to and disposed of by every department needs to be submitted to the Chief Minister for assessing the problem areas of various departments of the Government.

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