Bureaucrats to take personal cognizance of complaints marked by Haryana ministers

Pradeep Sharma

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 4

The BJP-JJP government has taken strong exception to the poor grievance redressal by the state bureaucracy.

Now, to enforce accountability among bureaucrats at the state and district levels and create an institutionalised grievance redressal system, the chief secretary has asked the administrative secretaries, heads of the departments, divisional commissioners and SDMs, to take personal cognizance of all complaints marked to their respective departments by ministers.

“There should be detailed inquiry about the complaints and the action taken reports (ATRs) should be sent to the minister concerned positively. An up to date record of the complaint should be maintained till it is resolved,” chief secretary’s order said.

Thousands of the complaints by general public come up before the District Public Relations and Grievance Redressal Committees, presided over by different ministers, and attended by non-officials members and district officers, at the district headquarters every month. These complaints are marked to the department concerned for redressal at the earliest.

However, on account of non-resolution of the complaints in a substantial number of cases, the aggrieved persons take up their complaints before different ministers. Even as the complaints are marked to different ministers, their resolution leaves much to be desired

The chief secretary’s order said sometimes the complaints are shown as “resolved” in the reports sent to the ministers. While officially these are shown as “resolved”, necessary action for their resolution is delayed at the level of the lower bureaucracy.

Inaccessibility of the bureaucracy and its poor grievance redressal record have regularly been flagged by public representatives, including MLAs and MPs, before the BJP top brass and Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar regularly. Some of the complaints are resolved after these are raised at the CM Window by the complaints.

The order of the chief secretary asking concerned officers to strictly enforce the new order seems to be an attempt to put in place a proper grievance redressal system.