Speedy Grievances Redressal under CPGRAMS | 29 Aug 2024

Source: BS

Why in News?

Recently, the Centre has issued revised guidelines for timely redressal of public grievances raised on the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) portal.

• During the Prime Minister’s interaction with government secretaries, he asked to make CPGRAMS more sensitive, accessible and meaningful to the citizens.

What are the Key Highlights of Revised Guidelines on Public Grievance Redressal?

• Reduction in Grievance Redressal Time: The maximum time for resolving public grievances has been reduced to 21 days from the previous 30 days.
  • If more time is needed, an interim reply must be provided, indicating the reason and expected timeline for resolution.
• Dedicated Officers and Nodal Officers: Ministries with high grievance volumes should appoint a nodal officer with sufficient rank to ensure timely and quality resolution..
• Whole of Government Approach: Officers need to handle complaints emphasising "whole of the government approach”.
  • This means that in no case grievance shall be closed by stating 'Does not pertain to this Ministry/Department/ Office' or its equivalent language.
  • Efforts shall be made to transfer the same to the right authority if the subject of the grievance does not pertain to the receiving Ministry.
• Use of Technology and AI Tools: Technology improvements like integration of grievance portals, root cause analysis using AI enabled dashboards and assessment matrix like the Grievance Redressal Assessment Index (GRAI) should be adopted to improve quality of grievance redressal.
  • GRAI offers an organization-wise comparison and provides valuable insights into the strengths and areas for improvement in the grievance redressal mechanism.
• Escalatory Appeal Mechanism: The appeal process in CPGRAMS currently requires appointing an officer of Additional or Joint Secretary rank as the Nodal Appellate Authority (NAA).
  • Sub Appellate Authorities (SAA) may be appointed by the Ministries/Departments under the NAA for speedy grievance redressal.
• Establishment of Dedicated Grievance Cells: A dedicated grievance cell shall be set up in every ministry with staff having domain knowledge of schemes/ programmes, experience and skill for data analytics and root cause analysis of grievances.
• Handling of Serious Complaints: Complaints relating to corruption, bribery, harassment or having any other vigilance angle of citizens shall be examined closely under the guidelines of Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) and central Vigilance Commission (CVC).
• Feedback Mechanism: If the citizen is not satisfied with the redressal, they can provide feedback on the portal and raise an appeal on it.
  • Feedback process will be integrated with WhatsApp, chatbot etc so that unsatisfied citizens can file an appeal through any of the above modes of feedback.
• Capacity Building and Training: Capacity building for grievance redressal officers will be done through state administrative training institutions.