(a) whether the Government has adopted a policy for redressal of public grievances, simplification of procedures, monitoring of programmes and other related matters;
(b) if so, the main features of the policy thereof; and
(c) the guidelines issued to the Central Ministries/Departments and to the States Governments for implementation of the said policy?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF PERSONNEL, PUBLIC GRIEVANCES AND PENSIONS AND MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF PARLIAMENTRY AFFAIRS.(SHRI SURESH PACHOURI)
(a): The Government has issued detailed instructions for prompt redress of public grievances. The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances has been issuing guidelines from time to time on simplification of procedures and for effective redress of grievances. The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances in consultation with National Informatics Centre (NIC) has designed a Public Grievances Redress and Monitoring System (PGRAMS) for effective monitoring of redress of grievances in Ministries/Departments of Government of India.
(b): The main feature of the policy for redress of public grievances is the decentralized system of handling of grievances, which consist of strengthening the internal redress machinery and introduction of inbuilt mechanisms to handle the grievances within each
Ministry/Department. The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances mainly concentrates on framing of policy guidelines, monitoring of implementation of guidelines issued by the Department from time to time and functioning of PGRAMS. The Department in its capacity as a nodal agency for matters relating to redress of public grievances, acts as an external monitoring agency and reviews periodically the performance of Ministries/Departments with respect to public grievances. The Department has also requested all Ministries/Departments to nominate nodal officers, to concentrate on the grievance prone areas identified to simplify the procedures and for keeping one meeting less day in a week to hear the general public.
(c): The guidelines issued to the Central Ministries/Departments and to the State Governments for implementation of the said policy and for close monitoring of the grievance redress mechanism have been compiled in the publication of the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances titled `Guidelines for Grievance Redress Mechanism in Government of India`.