• The Centre has reduced redressal time of public grievances, raised on a dedicated portal, to 21 days, from the existing 30 days.

• In an order mentioning revised guidelines, the government also suggested appointment of dedicated officers to handle complaints and emphasised whole-of-government approach while redressing the grievances.

• This means that in no case grievance shall be closed by stating “does not pertain to this Ministry/Department/ Office” or its equivalent language, the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) said.

• Efforts shall be made to transfer the same to the right authority if the subject of the grievance does not pertain to the receiving ministry. 

• In the ministries/departments where a large number of public grievances are received, it is advised to appoint a dedicated nodal officer with independent charge on sufficient rank so as to ensure timely and qualitative disposal of public grievances, it said.

• DARPG undertook a review of existing processes to make the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) — an online portal that allows people to raise complaints against government departments —  more sensitive, accessible and meaningful to the citizen.

What is CPGRAMS?

• Centralised Public Grievance Redress And Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) is an online web-enabled system over NICNET developed by NIC, in association with Directorate of Public Grievances (DPG) and Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG).

• CPGRAMS aims to enable submission of grievances by the aggrieved citizens from anywhere and anytime (24x7) basis to ministries/departments/ organisations who scrutinise and take action for speedy and favorable redress of these grievances.

• The grievances received on the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) shall be resolved promptly as soon as they are received but within a maximum period of 30 days.

• Tracking grievances is also facilitated on this portal through the system generated unique registration number.

• National Informatics Centre (NIC) through its Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Network — NICNET, has institutional linkages across all the ministries/departments of the central government, state governments, Union Territories and district administrations of the country. NICNET is a satellite-based nationwide computer-communication network, that is a type of Wide Area Network (WAN).

• In order to check the quality of disposal, CPGRAMS provides facility to the citizens to record their feedback on the portal and if a disposal is rated as poor, the option to file an appeal to the next higher authority is enabled.

• The government has also set up a call centre to get citizen feedback on disposed of grievances. Citizens can also get the appeal filed through the call centre if they are not satisfied with the disposal of the grievance.

Issues which are not taken up for redressal:

• Sub-judice cases or any matter concerning judgment given by any court.

• Personal and family disputes.

• RTI matters.

• Anything that impacts upon territorial integrity of the country or friendly relations with other countries.

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