Grievance redressing mechanism in the social sector in Odisha lacks in performance, for which disposals of such cases are poor in comparison to the other sectors, reveals the latest status report of the State Government.
In order to redress grievances of people, the Government started an online grievance disposal system in 2010. Till date, a total 1,70,649 grievances have been received while only 64,431 have been disposed of.
All the 40 departments and directorates and district offices numbering 4,000 are connected with e-Abhiyoga, the online system. However, the number of grievances received in the social sector including health, family welfare, education and others have not been well-attended, for which the pending list is high.
While the number of grievances received at the General Administration Department is highest with 6,559 cases, disposal is also high with only 937 cases pending.
But in the Health & Family Welfare Department, while a total of 3,255 grievances were received, a mere 1,250 were disposed of with as many as 2,005 cases pending.
At the School & Mass Education Department, 2,560 grievances were received, but only 300 cases were disposed of. So, 2,249 cases are pending, and cases of action-taken reports are also high.
The grievance redressing system at the Higher Education Department also is very poor. While 1,454 cases have been received till date, only 77 have been disposed of, leaving a whopping 1,376 pending, the highest among the unsettled cases in any particular department, officials admit.
At the Women and Child Development Department, while 974 cases of grievances were received, disposal was also poor with 735 cases still pending.
As for the Revenue administration, 1,063 grievances were received and disposal was a paltry 29, leaving 1,034 cases pending.
In order to activate the grievance redressal mechanism and ensure quick disposal of the cases at the State Secretariat, the NIC, Bhubaneswar is taking step to integrate e-Abhiyoga with the Odisha Secretariat Workflow Automation System (OSWAS).
This is expected to help senior officials have a direct review of the grievances and dispose them of at the earliest, feel senior officers handling the OSWAS.