Thursday, March 7, 2019
Grievance Redress Mechanism in Government
GRIEVANCE cover MECHANISM IN GOVERNMENT GRIEVANCE REDRESS 1. 1 account Redress Mechanism is part and parcel of the machinery of any judiciary. No governance hind end claim to be accountable, responsive and user-friendly unless it has established an in force(p) and legal unrighteousness garment utensil. In fact, the account sort out instrument of an governance is the gauge to measure its efficiency and legalness as it provides substantial feedback on the working of the administration. I. (A) STRUCTURE OF GRIEVANCE REDRESS MACHINERY AT vertex LEVEL The accounts of in the usual eye(predicate) argon genuine at assorted points in the giving medication of India .There atomic number 18 primarily two designated nodal agencies in the Central Government treatment these grievances. These agencies argon- (i) segment of administrative Reforms and worldly cin iodine casern Grievances, Ministry of Personnel, unrestricted Grievances & Pensions (ii) directorate of Public Gr ievances, console table secretariate division of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances 2. 1 division of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances is the nodal agency in respect of constitution initiatives on public grievances rectify mechanism and citizen centric initiatives.The habit of incision of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances consists primarily to undertake much(prenominal) citizen-centric initiatives in the handle of administration reforms and public grievances in the Government so as to modify the Government machinery to cede quality public services to the citizen in a hassle-free manner and eliminate the causes of grievance. 2. 2The grievances received by the Department are forwarded to the concern Ministries/Departments/State Governments/UTs, who are trans march with the substantive function united with the grievance for rectify under intimation to the complainant.The Department takes up somewhat 1000 grievances both social class dependi ng upon the seriousness of the grievance and follows them regularly work their final disposal. This changes the Department to evaluate the effectiveness of the grievance curative machinery of the concerned government agency. 2. 3On the basis of the grievances received, Department identifies the problem areas in Government which are complaint-prone. These problem areas are then subjected to studies and remedial measures are suggested to the Department/Organisation concerned. directorate of Public Grievances (DPG) . 1Based on the look back of the public grievances right machinery in Government of India carried out in 1987, the managerate of Public Grievances was set up in the Cabinet Secretariat with effect from 01. 04. 88. This Directorate was set up initially to look into singular complaints pertaining to four Central Government Departments which were more(prenominal) prone to public complaints. Subsequently, more Departments having larger public interface were added to its purview and presently this Directorate is handling grievances pertaining to 16 Central Government Organisations. . 2The Directorate was envisaged as an appellant body investigating grievances selectively and particularly those where the complainant had failed to get redress at the hands of internal machinery and the hierarchical authorities. Unlike the Department of AR&PG, Directorate of Public Grievances has been empowered to speak for the files and policemans for discussion to see that grievance handling has been done in a fair, objective and just manner.Wherever the Directorate is satisfied that the grievance has not been dealt in such a manner, it nonpluss worthy recommendations for consideration and adoption by the concerned Ministry/Department which are postulate to be implemented within a period of one month. 3. 3The empowered and enlightened citizenry of at once is far more demanding and the government, therefore, has to develop, take and enable itself to meet the evol ving demands of the society that it has to serve. The society oday is impatient with the old agreement of governance which is not coming up to its expectations. To them, a government employee is sensed as insensitive, aloof, corrupt and overall the administrative system as autocratic, shadowy and with no work culture 3. 4This requires a paradigm fight in governance to a system where the citizen is in the center and he is consulted at various stages of preparation and implementation of public policy. To achieve this objective, India unavoidably a public service which is capable, innovative and forward looking.The traditional role of civil service which was of administrator, service provider and controller of development activities has to make way for the new roles of facilitator and regulator so as to create scoop environment and conditions in the country for building a nation of excellence. 3. 5Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances is the nodal agency in Go vernment of India for formulation and implementation of such policies and strategic initiatives so as to enable and render the government machinery to meet the challenges intricate in achieving this objective. . 6Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances is the driving engine of reforms in administration and governance. The Department proposes to precede and lead Change to establish a public service of quality, efficiency, fair play and effectiveness and modernize the public service. It is the nodal agency in government for facilitating administrative mendments and reengineering of processes across the government. Citizens Charter initiative, Public Grievance Policy, Quality watchfulness in Government, e-Governance, Review of Administrative Laws etc.Documentation and Dissemination of Best Practices, Organisation & Methods, reading & Facilitation Counters, Civil Services Reforms are some of the areas under the ambit of Department of Administrative Reforms & Pu blic Grievances. 3. 7Following are the necessary conditions for no-hit implementation of any reforms agenda Political mandate Committed and salubrious executive Willingness and capability to take on vested interests in the system II. (A) exoteric GRIEVANCE REDRESS MECHANISM IN CENTRAL GOVERNMENT MINISTRIES/ DEPARTMENTS/ ORGANISATIONS 4. The Public Grievance Redress Mechanism functions in Government of India on a decentralized basis. The Central Government Ministries/Departments, their attached and subordinate offices and the autonomous bodies dealing with substantive functions as per Allocations of Business Rules, 1961 yield their respective grievance redress machinery. An officer of the level of Joint depository is required to be designated as Director of Grievances of the Ministry/Department/Organisation. The role and functions of Directors of Grievances are given in Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances O.M. no. 1/PLCY/PG-88(7) dated 01. 03. 1988. This i nter alia empowers the Directors of Grievances to call for files/reports and take terminations or palingenesis decisions already taken, in consultation with Secretary/HOD withal in those areas which do not fall within his/her vault of heaven/charge. 4. 2The functioning of Public Grievance Redress Machineries in various Ministries/Departments/Organisations is regularly reviewed by a Standing Committee of Secretaries under the Chairmanship of Cabinet Secretary with Additional Secretary Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances as member-secretary. . 3With a view to ensure prompt and effective redress to the grievances, a number of instructions have been sequeld by Department of AR&PG from time to time which, inter alia include- (a)Observe any Wednesday as a meetingless day in the Central Secretariat Offices when all the officers preceding(prenominal) a specified level should be available their desks from 1000hrs. to 1300hrs. to receive and reallyise public gr ievances. Field level offices having contact with the public have in addition to declare one day in the week as a meetingless day. b)Designate a Joint Secretary level officer as Director of Grievances including in autonomous bodies and public sector undertakings. (c)Deal with each grievance in a fair, objective and just manner and supply reasoned speaking retort for e real grievance rejected. (d)Analyse public grievances received to help identification of the problem areas in which modifications of policies and procedures could be undertaken with a view to making the delivery of services easier and more expeditious. e)Issue booklets/pamphlets well-nigh the schemes/services available to the public indicating the procedure and manner in which these crapper be availed and the right authority to be contacted for service as as well as the grievance redress authority. (f)Pick up grievances appearing in composition columns which relate to them and take remedial doing on them in a ti me bound manner. Issue rejoinders to newspapers after investigation in cases which are found to be baseless and/or damaging to the image of the Organisation. g) ratify the machinery for redress of public grievance finished, strictly observing meetingless day, displaying name designation, room number, telephone number etc. of Director of Grievances at the reception and opposite convenient places, placing locked complaint box at reception. (h)Set up round Grievance Redress Machinery and designate a Staff Grievance Officer. (i) accept the public grievances work and pass/disposal statistics relating to redress of public grievances in the Annual Action Plan and Annual Administrative Report of the Ministries/Departments. j) tack together time limits for disposal of work relating to public grievances and staff grievances and strictly deposit to them. (k)Acknowledge each grievance petition within three eld of notice, indicating the name, designation and telephone number of the offic ial who is processing the case. The time found in which a reply will be sent should alike be indicated. (l)Constitute Lok Adalats/Staff Adalats, if not already constituted, and hold them every(prenominal) quarter for quicker disposal of public as well as staff grievances and pensioners grievances. m)Constitute a Social Audit Panel or such other machinery, if not already constituted, for examining areas of public interface with a view to recommending essential changes in procedures to make the organization more people-friendly. (n) march a single window system at points of public contact, wherever possible to facilitate disposal of coats. (o)Indicating telephone/fax number of the officer whose signature over a communication regarding the decision/reply is to issue to the petitioner. p)Monitoring of grievances in organisations under Ministries/Departments on a monthly basis. (q)Publicising the grievance redress mechanism through the print and electronic media. (r)Review of receip t and disposal of grievances by Secretaries of Ministries/Departments in the weekly meetings taken by them. (B) TYPES OF customary GRIEVANCES 5. 1An analysis of grievances received in Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances and Directorate of Public Grievances has revealed that the majority of grievances related to inordinate discipline in aking decisions, extending from several months to several years and refusal/inability to make speaking replies/ chance upon basic information to the petitioners to enable them to examine whether their cases have been correctly decided. It is sight that, had the concerned organizations expeditiously and appropriately dealt with the grievances in the first instance, the complainants would not have approached Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances/Directorate of Public Grievances. (C) SYSTEMIC chore AREAS 6. There are rules, regulations, instructions which are archaic and aimed at switching the work towards ci tizens. Slackness in administration, low morale of the services, inherent inertia, absence of incentives, lack of proper authority and accountability are the delay-breeders and the delay is the major factor that stimulates the grievances. These factors need to be tackled properly through systematic changes. stripe is better than cure. On these lines, the best method to redress a grievance is not to allow the grievance to arise at the first instance.Even the redress of a grievance, that arose on account of delay, is also delayed as is revealed by the analysis of grievances according to which on a average six months are taken to redress a grievance. 6. 2Many a propagation Departments/Organisations are found to avoid taking appropriate decisions by resorting to rejection without application of mind, not taking appropriate interest in functioning of footslogger offices/linked autonomous organizations, and emphasize on disposal and not on the quality disposal.Decisions taken earlie r are reiterated without subjecting the cases of independent examination. There is an inertia to review decisions taken by down-the-line functionaries. In many cases Departments/Organisations justify the delay and continue with their inability to take decisions by regorgeting the onus on another agency or on the petitioner. Many a times, the authentic cause of grievance lay in internal inefficiency of the system and chastening to identify simple systemic solutions. It is also observed that the time norms set by Departments for providing services were not beingness adhered to in many cases. . 3There is no doubt that grievances continue to arise because of a high-pitched systemic tolerance for delay, poor work quality and non-accountability in every day performance of functions. Failure to review archaic, redundant and incongruous rules, policies and procedures and to pioneer simple, workable systemic changes is another cause for grievance generation. However, Departments and Or ganisations, which work with policies and procedures on a day-to-day basis, do not appear to have veritable the ability to continually look within and identify deficiencies.All these factors have ensured that grievances, once arisen, many a time do not get indomitable in normal course and need intervention at the highest administrative level. 6. 4Slackness in efficient functioning of Directors of Grievances is identified as one of the prime cause for continuing delay in redress of grievances. Poor work quality, non-accountability in everyday performance of functions and failure to systemically review policies/procedures and suggest systemic changes are other important causes.In most Ministries, Departments and Organisations, the mechanism of Director of Grievances is not functioning as per the mandate prescribed. (D) Focus Areas 7. 1In this context, it is the need of the time that the Government should review its pledge of providing hassle-free public services to the citizens by f ocusing on systemic changes to minimize the grievances in Government domain. In order to achieve this objective in a focused manner, it is necessary to evolve a multi-pronged strategy to be implemented in a time-bound and effective manner.Keeping in view the various factors involved in grievance redress issue, following areas need focused heed 7. 2 Performance Review Foreseeing areas of dissatisfaction (a)To review processes, functions etc. in the organization and to cast them pro-actively in a manner that would foresee areas of dissatisfaction, identify activities where transparence, equity, finesse and propriety are compromised, interventions that can help achieve better outcomes, improve satisfaction of internal and external stakeholders. b)An annual review of laws, rules, regulations, instructions and procedures be carried out with a view to simplify the procedure making the administration more transparent, accountable and citizen-friendly. Information Technology should be e mployed in re-engineering of governmental processes in order to improve efficiency and effectiveness and ensuring transparency and accountability. 7. 3 Identification of Grievance Prone Areas and Analysis (a)Identify areas unvaccinated to corruption and/or grievance generation and conduct work canvass of such areas.In addition, consider external/social audit in areas of very high public interface, with the aim of identifying wrong doers and improving processes and systems. Involve NGOs in the exercise. (b)Analyse the nature and causes of grievances with the aim of identifying systemic deficiencies in laws, rules, regulations, policies, instructions, work practices and procedures, and effecting systemic changes to remove/correct these deficiencies. The Directors of Grievances be the nodal officers for such purpose. The analysis should be conducted in the month of April every year and studies of identified grievance prone areas be undertaken.Recommendations made in the studies shoul d be implemented by December of that year so as to bring systemic changes and remove the Causes of grievances. (c)Fix duty in each and every case of delay, oversight or delinquency in performance of every day duties on failure to deliver services, and take disciplinary action to avoid recurrence. This will send a clear signal that in the event of failure to perform duties or deal appropriately with grievances within the time frame norms prescribed, a real possibility of having responsibility fixed on ones get up exists.Consider the feasibility of prescribing specific penalty clauses in such cases. 7. 4 Citizens Charter Formulation and effective implementation of Citizens Charters, which should, inter-alia, include revealing of time norms for providing various services to the citizens/clients and details of all levels of grievance redress machinery that may be approached. 7. 5 Information & Facilitation Counters (IFC) Setting up and effective operationalisation of IFCs civic soci ety may be involved in the functioning of IFCs to make them citizen- friendly and effective. 7. 6 On Line registration of GrievancesMake Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (PGRAMS) software, operational with every Director of Grievances. This shall enable the Director of Grievances to immediately place the details of grievances received in a database (efficient dak management) as well as disgrace the fact whether he intends to monitor its progress, identify the section/division where it is being sent, etc. , generate the time taken in dealing with the grievance, enable review of pending grievances in the organisation or across the organisations, generate acknowledgements to complainants, conduct analysis etc.The system should also have the facility of on-line registration of grievances by the citizens and access to information on the status of his/her grievances. 7. 7 Prompt and Effective Redress of Grievances (a)ll grievances should be necessarily acknowledged, with a n interim reply within 3 days of receipt and redressed within 3 months of receipt in the Organisation. The same time limit should apply even if co-ordination with supplemental offices or another Department/Organisation is involved. In such instances excess efforts, to be suo moto disclosed when reports are called, should be made. b)No grievance is to be rejected without having been independently examined. At a minimum, this means that an officer superior, to the one who delayed taking the original decision or took the original decision that is cause for grievance, should actually examine the case as well as the reply, intended to be sent to the grievance holder. (c)Make the Director of Grievances effective through the following inter-related steps (i)Secretaries/Organisational Heads ensuring that Directors of Grievances are fully empowered in accordance with instructions to perform their role. ii)All grievance representations received in the Department/Organisation, either by mai l, fax, e-mail to be invariably routed through Director of Grievances before they go to concerned sections/divisions. At this stage, Office of the Director of Grievances shall go through the representations and come to a prima-facie view regarding the gravity of the affair involved and decide whether it shall monitor the case or allow down-the-line functionaries to independently deal with it.Directors of Grievances should monitor and follow up at least 3 to 5 percent of grievances received to enable them to assess the efficacy of grievance redress mechanism. (iii)Fix responsibility in each case of delay, default and dereliction of duty, identified by Director of Grievances, and take appropriate action against concerned personnel. In addition, consider feasibility of prescribing specific penalty clauses for such failures. 7. 8 Review and Monitoring of Grievance Redress MechanismEnsure meaningful review of the performance of grievance redress machinery of the Ministry/Organisation as well as that of attached/ subordinate organization by Secretary/ Head of the Department on a monthly basis. Review should also cover action against defaulters. III. ROLE OF REGULATORS, OMBUDSMAN AND LIKE BODIES 8. 1An explosive issue today in context of public grievance redress is the pace and phasing of the movement towards on the fence(p) markets after the gradual abandonment of centralized planning model.The Government is today withdrawing from various service sectors traditionally monopolosized by it and mysterious enterprise is woful in. This may lead to a scenario where the Government monopolies are replaced by even more vicious private monopolies or cartels in the absence of equal regulation, enforcement and recourse to grievance redress. 8. 2This has significant implications for the role of Government. The Government can not just abandon the interests of citizens to be taken care of by the market forces in areas of service delivery covered by the private sector.In the o pen market scenario, it is often the major stakeholders and players which define the cost, quality and mechanism etc. of service delivery. 8. 3The Government therefore needs to put in place appropriate mechanisms in the regulatory authorities, ombudsmen and like bodies in such sectors so that the concerns of individual citizens are also accorded equal grandeur and weightage and are appropriately and effectively addressed. They should safeguard the interests of the common citizens and ensure that the grievances of the citizens are attended to promptly and effectively.
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