E-Paper
Redressal system to be in place before law
NEW DELHI: The Modi government has decided to fix the grievance redressal system in central ministries before enacting a law to give statutory backing to this right.
NEW DELHI: The Modi government has decided to fix the grievance redressal system in central ministries before enacting a law to give statutory backing to this right.
A government source said a committee of secretaries targeted finalising a law for delivery of services and grievance redressal by December 2018 but the Prime Minister’s Office wanted them to first set a system in place.
The government, however, hasn’t been able to finalise the scheme because of differences within the top echelons of the civil service on the contours of the scheme.
“Once the scheme is rolled out, the next stage will be to back it up by a law,” a senior official of the department of administrative reforms and grievances said.
The PMO had identified enacting a public grievance law as one of the key priority areas in the early days of the Modi government. But it has had second thoughts.
In any case, the government isn’t convinced that the central law should extend to states as proposed in the draft firmed up by the UPA government.
As Gujarat chief minister too, Modi had questioned the UPA’s anxiety to enact a law to redress grievances when systemic changes carried out by executive instructions had served them well.
As PM too, Modi has been closely monitoring grievance redressal and, according to senior officials, pulled up officials who have defaulted on the timelines.
“That the grievances received by the Centre have quadrupled between 2013 and 2015 is a reflection that the system is delivering,” said a senior official.
Against 2 lakh grievances in 2013, the Centralized Public Grievance Redressal and Monitoring System received 8.79 lakh grievances in 2015.
