NEW DELHI: The Centre on Wednesday directed all departments to redress pensioners’ grievances within 21 days. In the cases where redressal requires more time, the departments must provide an interim response, as per an official statement.
The decision follows a review of the Centralised Pension Grievances Redress and Monitoring System portal. The new guidelines emphasise a coordinated approach across ministries, ensuring that grievances cannot be dismissed without proper resolution.
A grievance cannot be closed without its conclusive redressal and an action-taken report should be filed in with the supporting information and documents at the time of closure of the grievance, said the statement from the personnel ministry.
“Ministries/departments shall undertake monthly review of pension-related grievances, pending on the portal to ensure the qualitative redressal of grievances within the prescribed time limit,” it said. The nodal public grievance officers have been asked to “analyse the trend of grievances and conduct a root cause analysis to check the incidence of grievances,” it added.
As per the guidelines, an applicant can file an appeal against the redressal of his grievance within 30 days of closure of the grievance. It will be disposed of within 30 days by the Appellate Authority.
Additionally, the department of administrative reforms and public grievances is executing Special Campaign 4.0 to promote ‘Swachhata’ (cleanliness) and reduce backlog in government offices.
The campaign 4.0 is implemented on digitisation, improving or enhancing office spaces, timely scrap disposal, weeding or preservation of office records, inclusivity measures and environment-friendly activities.
As of mid-October, 800 public grievances have been addressed, the statement said.