Recently, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions (MoPPG&P) issued comprehensive Guidelines for Handling Public Grievances for making grievance redressal time-bound, accessible and meaningful.

Key highlights of Comprehensive Guidelines for Handling Public Grievances

An integrated user-friendly grievance filing platform with CPGRAMS to provide citizen a single window experience.
- This will help de-duplication and save time/efforts of officials from resolving same grievances on multiple portals.
Appointment of Nodal Officers for Public Grievances in all Ministries/ Departments who will address grievances promptly, fairly and efficiently.
Dedicated Grievance Cells shall be set-up in every Ministry/ Department with sufficient resources having knowledge of schemes and activities.
Timelines for effective grievance redressal have been reduced to 21 days from existing 30 days.
Grievance redressal assessment index for ranking Ministries/ Departments shall be issued on monthly basis.
2024 Policy Guidelines manifest technology improvements undertaken with 10-step reform process adopted.
- Government implemented 10-step reforms of CPGRAMS (Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System) in 2022.

About Grievance Redressal Mechanism (GRM)

GRM of an organisation is an important instrument to measure its effectiveness as it provides feedback on the working of the organisation.
- Its basic principle is that if promised level of service delivery is not achieved or if a right of a citizen is not honoured then citizen should be able to take recourse to a mechanism for grievance redressal.
Two designated nodal agencies in Union Government handling grievances are:
- Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, DARPG (under MoPPG&P).
- Directorate of Public Grievances, Cabinet Secretariat.
Status of Grievance Redressal: CPGRAMS portal has redressed nearly 60 lakh Public Grievances in period 2022-2024 and has mapped 1.01 lakh Grievance Redressal officers of Ministries/ Departments and States/ UTs.
- CPGRAMS is an online platform available to citizens 24x7 to lodge their grievances to public authorities on any subject related to service delivery.
- It is a single portal connected to all Ministries/Departments of Government of India and States through role-based access to the officers in portal.

Other Initiatives taken for Grievance Redressal

Constitutional and statutory institutions: Like CVC, Lokayuktas, NHRC, SHRC etc. have mandate to look into complaints of corruption, abuse of office by public servants, negligence in conduct of public servant regarding human rights violation etc.
Grievance Redressal Assessment Index (GRAI): Conceptualised and designed by DARPG based on recommendation of Parliamentary Standing Committee of MoPPG&P.
- It aims to present organisation-wise comparative picture and provide valuable insights about strengths and areas of improvement regarding GRM.
Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation (PRAGATI): Multi-purpose and multi-modal platform to address common man’s grievances, and simultaneously monitoring/reviewing programmes/projects of Centre/State/UT Governments.
E-Nivaran: Launched by Central Board of Direct Taxes to fast-track taxpayer grievances and ensure early resolution of their complaints
Citizen Charter: It solves the problems which a citizen encounters while dealing with organisations providing public services.

Issues associated with Grievance Redressal Mechanism

Delays: Delays in grievance redressal due to bureaucratic hurdles, limited resources, or inefficient workflows undermines public confidence in the government.
Corrupt Practices: In some instances, grievance redressal mechanisms themselves are subject to corrupt practices, where officials allegedly delay or manipulate outcomes in exchange for bribes.
Lack of Integration: Multiplicity of grievance redressal platforms across different sectors (e.g., public distribution systems, consumer rights), across states, makes it difficult for citizens to lodge and track their complaints.
Digital divide: Many citizens, particularly in rural areas, lack access to internet or digital literacy required to use online redressal platforms effectively.

Way ahead

2^nd ARC Recommendations:
- States may be advised to set up independent public grievances redressal authorities to deal with complaints of delay, harassment or corruption.
- Government organizations should analyse complaints received and identify areas wherein interventions would be required to eliminate underlying causes that lead to public grievances.
Recommendations of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, (25^th Report):
- Grievance-handling system should be accessible, simple, quick, fair, responsive and effective.
- Public Grievance Redressal Mechanism should be envisaged in statutory form on line of RTI Act, 2005 which would make it mandatory on all State Governments/UTs/etc. to pursue grievance till their final disposal.
Decentralized redressal: Decentralize GRM so that local or regional offices are empowered to resolve issues, reducing the burden on central authorities and ensuring faster resolutions.
Reduce bureaucratic layers: Simplify the process of filing complaints by minimizing paperwork and formalities, focussing on making system accessible, and citizen friendly.
- For example, setting up and effective operationalization of Information & Facilitation Counters.
Review and monitoring: Establish a robust monitoring system to analyse performance of grievance-handling departments and officials through periodic audits and evaluations.
Feedback mechanism: Establish key performance indicators for online grievance management system like response times, resolution rates, and citizen satisfaction.
Integrating Technology: AI can be employed to categorize/prioritize grievances and utilize data analytics to identify trends/patterns in grievances, helping in allocation of resources and policy adjustments.