Chief Minister Raman Singh has directed senior officials to speed up disposal of public grievances issues and monitor it regularly.
The Chief Minister also told the officials that solving the public grievances quickly and in a time-bound manner is the top priority of his Government.
On the direction of the Chief Minister, the General Administration and Public Grievances Department has sent a circular to secretaries, additional secretaries and principal secretaries of all the departments in this regard.
In this circular, the Department has said the administration should dispose the public grievances quickly to make the Government public-oriented, sensitive and to bridge the gap between the Government and the public.
The circular also emphasised on the need for building a mechanism in every department, nomination of nodal officers, computerisation, and provide information to the people about the status of their petitions.
It also has given emphasis on the need for disposal of grievances of Government employees, and use of video conferencing. In the circular, the Department has directed the officials to develop
the grievances disposal mechanism in their respective departments.
Despite several efforts made by the Government, the people often complain that there is no body in the Department to hear their grievances. That is why the complaints linked to different departments need to be redressed directly at administrative level.
In the circular, the Government has directed all the departments to have facility on the home page of their official websites using which people can post their grievances on line. Although a review meeting found that some departments have already made the provision, there are some who still have not devised any mechanism.
In the circular, the Government has directed the Chief Secretary, principal secretaries, and secretaries to monitor the public grievances themselves and ensure that the departments under them follow the instruction strictly.
The circular urged them to nominate an Under Secretary ranked officer as Nodal Officer in the Mantralaya. Some departments have already adhered to this instruction.
The duty of a Nodal Officer was to inform the Public Grievances Department once in the first week of every month about the disposed cases in his respective department.
To make the things easy for the nodal officers, the Government has announced the days where they need to do the work. The concerned nodal officers would be held responsible if any grievance petition disappears. The Government has emphasised on the need for making officials accountable on this matter.
The Government has also created a video conferencing facility in the Mantralaya (Mahanadi Bhavan) to address the public grievances quickly and effectively.
The video conferencing hall MI-10 has been connected with all the 27 district headquarters and public hearing on the grievances are being held district-wise on specific days. Sometimes it was found that junior officers are being sent to participate in the video conferencing. In the circular, the government has directed that Secretary of the concerned department or any senior officer need to present as junior officials cannot take a decision on some grievances.