Honorable Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi had asked all Secretaries whose departments have extensive public dealing to set up a system for "top-level monitoring" of grievances and act against delinquent officials. In this regard I would like to mention that the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) is very much ineffective. It is supposed to be an online public grievance lodging and monitoring system. But it has become an online public grievance lodging system only. There is neither redress nor monitoring. The public grievances received in this portal are closed without assessing the satisfaction of the complainant. Normally the concerned department closes the grievance on the last day of the prescribed time limit without properly addressing the grievance. There is no procedure for appeal regarding the closure of the grievance. What is the purpose of a redress mechanism if the grievance is not properly resolved? If a third party monitoring is not carried out by an independent body, any grievance can be closed without addressing the grievance in a fair, objective and just manner.

I had the bitter experience of my grievances being closed without even answering the points raised by me. In most of the cases the grievances are closed with the action taken report as “the matter being under consideration” and there will not be any time limit prescribed. In other cases if the organisation is at fault they will try to cover up the facts and close the grievance without even properly answering the query.

The Public Grievance Redress Mechanism need a revamp to make it more effective. I request the Honourable Minister to devise a mechanism to monitor the closure of grievance by an independent third party and bring in an appeal system if the complainant is not satisfied. Transparency is widely recognised as a core principle of good governance. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stated that transparency and accountability are the two cornerstones of any pro-people government. Transparency and accountability not only connect the people closer to the government but also make them equal and integral part of the decision making process.