Owing to lack of interest by the concerned department and bureaucrats, the number of complainants to the Delhi Government’s public grievance monitoring system has declined alarmingly. Earlier, on an average 4,000-5,000 complaints per week used to be lodged.
Now there is a sharp decline in the complaints received by the grievance redressal mechanism. At present, on an average only 150 complaints are received by the department per week. Meanwhile taking serious note of the sharp dip in complaints, Chief Secretary SK Srivastava has directed the grievance monitoring cell to keep complainants informed of the action taken by the departments.
Chief Secretary SK Srivastava admitted that the number of new cases coming in is on the wane. Around 150 references are received per week and grouse by complainants was they were never been informed of the punitive actions taken by the departments. According to officials of public grievance monitoring system, there is noticeable ebb in complaints received by the department during President’s Rule compared to the 49-day regime of the AAP Government. After the fall of Kejriwal Government, concerned departments have stopped taking interest in the complaints referred to by the public grievance monitoring system. Besides, 90 per cent of the complaints were returned since they could not be addressed.
“At a Head of Departments (HoDs) meeting, Ravi Dadhich, Additional Secretary in the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) reported that out of the 15,000 pending references, around 15 per cent are overdue, which pertain to Delhi Police, MCD (North/South), Education Department, DDA, and the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC). The number of new cases coming in is on the decline as around 150 references are received per week. Chief Secretary once again reiterated complainants must be kept informed of the actions taken by the departments,” the minutes of the meeting said.
During the 49-day AAP regime, over 20,000 complaints had been received by the department. At that time, most of the complaints were against Delhi Police, followed by those against the north and south municipal corporations, Delhi Jal Board and the Department of Education, among others. In certain cases, delays have occurred since complaints concerned multiple departments. The average time for redressal is anywhere from a week to a fortnight.