How Indian Government Handles Public Grievances

While the number of public grievances has increased almost five times, an Indian minister Dr. Jitendra Singh said this was possible mainly because of the prompt disposal of complaints in a time-bound manner. Now people feel motivated to file a complaint, he added.

Explaining the Public Grievances system of the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) on Monday, Dr. Jitendra Singh cited figures to state that before the present government came in, the total number of grievances or complaints filed in the grievance cell in the DARPG was about 200,000 annually, which showed a steep rise in the last three years.

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In 2013, from 1st January to 31st December the total number of grievances filed was 209,297 but in 2014 after the present government took over on 26th May, the seven months’ period also made a difference and the total number of grievances registered was 270,413.

In 2015, the number further increased to 879,230 and in 2016 it went up to 1,194,931 and in the current year 2017, from 1st January to 15th May, 549,761 complaints were received, which means that by the end of this year, this figure may go up beyond around 1.2 million.

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Similarly, on the other hand, Dr. Jitendra Singh claimed that in 2013, the average time taken for the disposal of any grievance was 220 days, which has been reduced to 24 days in the current year.

The minister said that a number of steps in the last two to three years also helped in making the Grievance Cell proactive. For example, now there is a round-the-clock portal and the facility is also available on mobile app so that a citizen is in a position to file complaint any time from anywhere. In addition, he said, a ‘Twitter Sewa’ is also available for the purpose.

Photo courtesy: Press Information Bureau