RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh has emerged as the top state in the country for public grievance redressal, according to the Central Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System. In its latest review, the CPGRAMS found that 81 per cent of the public grievances received by the state government were redressed.
Tamil Nadu ranked second with 71.24 per cent redressal rate and Gujarat came third with 65.46 percent.
Interestingly, the neighboring state of Madhya Pradesh from which Chhattisgarh was carved out as a separate state in November 2000, could settle merely 11 per cent of the grievances it received, according to the official data.
Chhattisgarh government received 18,735 online applications from the Union government's portal CPGRAMS and settled 15,299 of them.
There is a prescribed guideline followed by the state in handling the grievances received, state officials say. “Based on the specific nature of the applications, the grievances pass through various hierarchical authorities who are asked to examine the case. If needed, they are taken up by the administration at the state level. The complaints received are disposed of in three to 15 days," K M Agrawal, SDO (General Administration Department and Public Grievance Cell) told the Express.
If a particular grievance cannot be redressed, due to various reasons, the aggrieved person is informed of the same.
Chhattisgarh is the only state that uses the video-conferencing facility to improve efficiency in grievance redressal, the officials claimed.
Officials at the State secretariat connect with officials of eight districts every day of the week. Every district gets its turn and is allotted a day of the week, along with other districts.
The applicants from the districts discuss their grievances face-to-face with officials at the secretariat through video conferencing on the day allotted for their district.
Often people also visit their respective collectorate offices to talk about their problems directly with the officials, who take down their complaints and forward it to the concerned departments.
The process, besides offering speedy redressal of grievances, also gives an opportunity to review the performance and progress of various government schemes implemented by different departments at the ground level. All the 146 panchayats of the state too are linked to the secretariat through video conferencing.