Bureaucrats told to take cognisance of plaints marked by ministers

Box: Delay by lower bureaucracy

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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

Pradeep Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 5

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

Now, to enforce accountability among bureaucrats at the state and district levels and create an institutionalised grievance redress system, the Chief Secretary has asked the administrative secretaries, head of departments, divisional commissioners and SDMs, to take personal cognisance 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 was resolved,” the Chief Secretary’s order said.

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

However, on account of the 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.

The inaccessibility of the bureaucracy and its poor grievance redress 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 officials concerned to strictly enforce the new order seems to be an attempt to put in place a proper grievance redress system.