MADURAI: In an innovative move to improve public service delivery, the Madurai district administration has introduced an e-filling system for petitions submitted during the weekly grievance day meetings at the collectorate. The initiative aims to save time for the public, improve transparency, and speed up grievance redressal, and has already received a positive response from petitioners.
While citizens have been able to apply online for various government services and certificates since 2022, grievance petitions at the collectorate continued to be received manually until recently.
Petitioners were issued only handwritten receipts, making it difficult to track the status of their applications and often requiring repeated visits for updates.
To address these issues, the then district collector P Akash introduced the e-filing system on June 15. Under the new process, petitioners receive an electronic acknowledgement slip containing a unique application number immediately after registration, enabling them to track the progress of their petitions online without having to visit government offices frequently.
Speaking to TNIE, a senior official from the Social Security Scheme Department said that manual petitions are first scanned and digitally forwarded to the concerned department heads for action, while physical copies are also sent to the respective departments. The official added that the Collector can now approve documents using an e-signature, replacing the earlier practice of waiting for physical signatures and thereby significantly reducing delays in processing.
Petitioner M Ganesan from Vadipatti welcomed the initiative, saying the system has become smoother after recent improvements and has considerably reduced waiting time for the public. He recalled that during the first week of implementation, long queues and registration delays caused inconvenience due to the heavy rush at the Collectorate.
In response, the administration introduced separate queues for men and women, designated registration rooms, deployed additional staff, and ensured immediate issuance of e-acknowledgement slips.
Officials said that 729 petitions were received during last week’s grievance day meeting alone. They added that efforts are being made to resolve grievances within 15 days and that petitioners will receive SMS alerts seeking clarifications or additional information whenever required, making the overall process more efficient and citizen-friendly.