Over 700 plaints pending for over a year on portal and CM’s helpline: RTI

TNN

Panaji: In July 2022, chief minister Pramod Sawant launched a portal that promised time-bound redressal of public grievances. But almost four years later, the data tells a different story. There are 704 complaints pending for over a year against different departments received on the public grievance redressal portal, as per the state’s own reply provided under RTI.

A year ago, the CM helpline was launched. The RTI reply provided by the directorate of public grievances shows that together on the portal and the CM helpline, 3,692 complaints were received of which 2,586 were addressed. More than 1,000 complaints remain unresolved.

Leading the list with 231 grievances waiting to be addressed is the public works department (PWD), followed by 186 complaints under municipal administration.

There are 89 complaints yet to be resolved by the revenue department, while 27 are waiting for the panchayat’s attention for more than a year. Directorate of transport has 14 complaints and the department of drinking water has accumulated 11 complaints pending over a year, even as the department itself was created just 15 months ago.

Data shows that departments were more likely to address complaints received through the CM’s helpline. For instance, PWD resolved 260 of 268 complaints received through the helpline. But only 136 of 283 complaints received through the public grievance portal were addressed.

However, the likes of municipal administration were unshakeable even when the complaints were routed through the CM’s helpline. It resolved none of the seven complaints received through it and addressed only 13 of the 100 complaints received through the portal over two years.

Revenue and panchayat were the other departments which were slow to respond, while resolution came quickly under health, women and child, and police departments.

The CM has launched the portal for public grievance redressal on completion of 100 days in office, promising that this would make the administration “more responsive, accountable, transparent and citizen-friendly”.

Sawant had said that each department’s designated public grievance officer would redress grievances within a timeline and the complainant would be informed of the status of the issue within 48 hours. Upon exceeding the timeline, the grievance was to be escalated to higher authorities for necessary action.

GFX

OVER LAST TWO YEARS

Complaints through public grievance portal – Addressed

Revenue - 303 - 115

Public works - 283 - 136

Drinking water – 118 – 64

Panchayat – 198 - 90

Electricity – 188 - 154

Transport – 138 – 64

Municipal administration – 100 – 13

Water resources - 39 - 5

Education - 38 – 26

Vigilance – 25 - 5

Complaints received on CM Helpline – Addressed

Police – 107 - 105

Social welfare – 103 – 103

Electricity – 75 - 75

Health services – 43 – 40

Drinking water – 18 – 12

Kadamba transport – 17 - 11

Transport – 14 – 7

Panchayat – 12 – 3

Revenue – 10 - 5

Raj Bhavan – 8 - 0

Municipal administration – 7 – 0

Complaints pending on PGRS portal for more than a year

PWD – 231

Municipal administration - 186

Revenue – 89

Panchayat – 27

Transport – 14

Vigilance - 12

Drinking water - 11