Redressal of citizen grievances: Rights & process
he Director of Public Grievances, the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Government of India is the nodal agency to formulate policy guidelines for citizencentric governance in the country. Redressal of citizen's grievances is one of the most important initiatives of the department.
It formulates public grievance redressal mechanisms for effective and timely redress / settlement of citizen's grievances.
The Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) is an online platform available to the citizens 24x7 to lodge their grievances to the public authorities on any subject related to service delivery. It is a single portal connected to all the ministries/departments of government of India and states. Every ministry and states have role-based access to this system. The procedure includes designating a senior officer as the Director of Grievances/Grievance Officer to ensure that the system remains simple, fair and responsive and fixing the time limit for disposal of work relating to public grievances. In addition to the web portal, CPGRAMS is also accessible to the citizens through mobile application downloadable through Google Play Store and mobile application integrated with UMANG. Every ministry or department in the government of India, state governments or Union Territories (UTs) have access to this system, and grievances are resolved by the ministries/ departments/ states/ UTs concerned.
Who can lodge grievance?
Any citizen can lodge his/her grievances pertaining to the Central ministries/ departments/ state governments/ UTs.
Know Your Rights Which issues are not taken up for redress?
Subjudice cases or any matter concerning judgment given by any court
Personal and family disputes
RTI matters
Anything that impacts upon territorial integrity of the country or friendly relations with other countries.
SUGGESTIONS: How to lodge grievance
Website : https://pgportal.gov.in
Mobile App : MyGrievance
By post or by hand in person at:
Dept of Administrative Reforms @ Public Grievances, 5th floor, Sardar Patel Bhavan, Sansad Marg, New Delhi – 110001
What happens after grievance is lodged?
The grievance is acknowledged online or by post. A unique registration number is given to each grievance.
What is the system of granting personal hearing?
Every Wednesday has been earmarked for receiving and hearing of grievances by the Director of Public Grievances in person.
Time Limit for resolution of grievance : 45 days
Appeal procedure for grievance
The CPGRAMS provides appeal facility to the citizens if they are not satisfied with the resolution by the Grievance Officer. After 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.
Number of grievance disposed between January 1 ,2015 & February 28, 2022: Over 1.17 crore. 81,000 grievances officers and 792 appellate or sub-appellate authorities have been mapped in CPGRAMS.
The writer is a Vile Parle-based social activist.