The Hindu : New Delhi News : President launches a new website

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Saturday, Jul 25, 2009
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New Delhi

President launches a new website

Smriti Kak Ramachandran

To simplify the process of grievance redress

Photo: Anu Pushkarna

New website: President Pratibha Patil launching the Rashtrapati Bhavan helpline portal in New Delhi on Friday.

NEW DELHI: With the click of a few buttons, petitions, prayers and complaints will now swiftly reach the President’s Office, find their way to the departments concerned, get tracked as they are processed and stored for future use.

With the launch of a new website, http: //helpline.rb.nic.in, on Friday, reaching out to the President has become easier. Launched by President Pratibha Patil at Rashtrapati Bhavan, the website has been designed to simplify the process of grievance redress.

“The Rashtrapati Bhavan mail box receives over 400 mails everyday. The new portal is expected to reduce the time taken to despatch the mail to the Central and State Government departments concerned, following up on the action taken and finally maintaining the record,” said Cristy Fernandes, Secretary to the President.

“We hope to process the applications within seven days of receiving them. And everybody who sends us a mail will be provided a unique registration number (URN), which will help them keep track of their application,” he added.

The portal, Mr. Fernandes said, was the President’s idea: “On assuming office, she expressed the wish to modernise everything possible, from infrastructure to the style of working.”

The portal offers citizens a platform to voice their grievances which generally go unheard. Seventy per cent of the applications that the President’s Office receives are though ordinary post while and the rest come in electronically. “People who are left with no options write to the President. There are some limitations that the office faces as far as keeping track of these applications, updating their status and preserving these applications is concerned. But with the launch of this portal, we hope to address these issues,” said Mr. Fernandes.

The new system has being integrated with the centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System which will monitor the progress of the petition. The portal is currently available in English but will gradually be available in other Indian languages as well.

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