Tassaduq for fresh push towards good governance through effective grievance redressal

Chairs maiden meeting with HoDs to review status of grievance redressal mechanism

SRINAGAR, MAY 25 - Effective grievance redressal mechanism is central to establishing efficient management system in the state that is transparent and accountable to all stakeholders. For this, Chief Minister’s Grievance Cell is acting with intent to push the state towards good governance through its proper implementation.

Coordinator, Chief Minister’s Grievance Cell, Tassaduq Mufti said this while chairing maiden meeting today with the HoDs and Nodal Officers of all departments. The meeting was aimed at strengthening the departmental as well as central grievance redressal mechanism besides establishing, defining standard operating procedures (SOP) to provide good governance and responsive administration to the people.

The meeting featured open discussions and suggestions from heads of various departments for effective implementation of this initiative of the government.

Tassaduq Mufti, welcoming the inputs from officers said that with the strengthening of internal and as well as central mechanism for grievance redressal, we are providing people with a two tier system wherein consumers have an additional option to approach CM’s central forum in case their grievances are not resolved at departmental level.

With implementation of JKGGC, the inherent problems within the earlier system such as lack of accountability, delay in action etc will be dealt with effectively.

Urging the departments to create and streamline internal forums, Tassaduq said that there is a need to devise mechanisms where IT tools can be utilized for response oriented approach towards timely grievance redressal. He said that the nodal officers and consumers should be sensitized to take immediate measures to redress people’s complaints.

Stressing on time bound redressal of grievances filed by people, Tassaduq said that focus should be laid on redressing the concerns properly rather than just disposing them off and it should be ensured that the response is visible at ground level.

Tassaduq further said that urgent cases need to be taken up on priority and should be redressed in the set time frame, failing which appropriate action will be taken against the concerned officers for lack of seriousness and timely action.

The officers present were asked to respond to complaints filed with the JKGGC in line with their nature i.e, urgent, important and normal.

The meeting was informed that to deal with frivolous complaints, JKGGC have established a research wing that carries out exercises to ascertain genuineness of complaints and forwards it further to concerned departments after proper scrutiny.

In order to ease the whole process, the research wing initially screens the complaints and put them under different categories depending upon their nature.

People can file their complaints to JKGGC through various modes including web portal, 24X7 helpline number, in-person and postal mail. JKGGC also takes suo-moto action on cases highlighted by print and electronic media.

The meeting was also informed about the status of complaints lying with various departments. Tassaduq Mufti asked the officers to ensure resolving the complaints which are yet to be redressed and should not wait for the reminders from JKGGC.