Govt gets 5.59 lakh public grievances so far this yr

The Centre received 5.59 lakh public grievances against various government departments in the first half of this year, with the Department of Financial Services (DFS) getting most of such complaints, according to an official report.

Of the total of 5,59,094 complaints received on the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) -- an online mechanism -- between January 1 and June 25, as many as 5,32,662 were disposed of, it stated.

'Department of Financial Services (Banking Division), Ministry of Labour and Employment, Central Board of Direct Taxes, Ministry of Railways are the top ministries which receive(d) the maximum number of grievances.

'The Ministry of Cooperation also features in the list of maximum grievances receiving ministries,' said the report of the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG).

The DFS (Banking division) received 86,478 complaints, the Ministry of Labour and Employment got 62,214, Central Board of Direct Taxes (Income Tax) 26,425, Ministry of Railways (Railways Board) 26,235 while 25,397 grievances were raised against the Department of Posts, it said.

As many as 24,480 complaints were received against the Department of Telecommunications, 20,751 by the Ministry of Home Affairs, 17,232 by the Cooperation Ministry, and 16,652 by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) and 16,354 by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, according to the report.

'The Department of Financial Services (Banking division) tops the list under the corruption category with 1,605 pending grievances. Department of Rural Development, Department of Consumer Affairs & O/o (office of) the Comptroller & Auditor General of India feature in the list as well,' it said.

The DFS had received 11,538 grievances, in addition to 810 brought forward from previous years, under the corruption category. Of these, 1,605 were pending, said the CPGRAMS monthly report for June 2022 brought out by the DARPG under the Personnel Ministry.

The department also topped the list under the 'harassment/atrocities category' as well, with 292 pending grievances, it stated.

The DoPT, which is the Centre's nodal department for anti-corruption matters, had received 1,943 grievances (excluding 315 ones which were brought forward) under the 'allegation of corruption/malpractices category', of which 410 were pending, the report said.

The Cooperation Ministry had got a total of 407 grievances (including brought forward ones) of these 355 were pending during the first six months of the year (till June 25), it said.

The Department of Health and Family Welfare and the office of CAG had got 365 and 1,271 public grievances (including brought forward ones), of which 259 and 248 respectively, were pending, according to the report.

Under the 'harassment/atrocities category', the DFS had 2,375 grievances (including 152 brought forward ones). Of these, 292 were pending, the report said, adding that the Home Ministry had got 635 total grievances under this category and 175 of them were pending.

The Department of Social Justice and Empowerment had 101 pending grievances (125 total complaints were received), 64 such pending plaints by the Coal Ministry (out of 373 total grievances), 46 each with the Department of Higher Education (135 total grievances) and Department of Consumer Affairs (163 total plaints) and 40 by Department of Rural Development (101 total grievances), it said.

Thirty-six grievances under the harassment/atrocities category were pending with the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (395 total grievances were received), 31 by the Ministry of Cooperation (33 total complaints) and 21 by the Ministry of Labour and Employment (232 total plaints), said the report giving details of the top 10 ministries that received the maximum number of complaints.

Incidentally, the top 10 ministries receiving the maximum number of public complaints also feature at the top in disposing of the maximum number of grievances.

The DFS (Banking division) disposed of 86,381 grievances, 63,351 by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, 25,748 by the Ministry of Railways (Railway Board), 25,461 by the Department of Posts, 24,960 by the Department of Telecommunications, 23,122 by Central Board of Direct Taxes (Income Tax) and 20,794 by the Home Ministry, it said.

As many as 20,219 grievances were disposed of by the DoPT, 16,154 by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and 14,517 by the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, the DARPG report said.

It also mentioned the top 10 ministries with pending grievances for more than 45 days – which is the time limit to resolve such complaints.

The Ministry of Cooperation had 16,053 public grievances pending for more than 45 days, 9,768 by the Department of Health and Family Welfare, 5,978 by CBDT (Income Tax), 2,034 by the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment and 1,930 by the Department of Revenue, it said.

There were 1,653 pending grievances for over 45 days by the DoPT, 1,453 by the Department of Defence, 844 by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, 548 by the Department of Higher Education and 531 by the Department of Military Affairs, the report said.

A total of 30,23,894 grievances (including those brought forward from the previous year) were received on CPGRAMS in 2021 (21,35, 923 were disposed of), as against 33,42,873 in 2020 (23,19,569 were disposed) and 27,11,455 during 2019 (16,39,852), according to a data tabled in Parliament in April by the Personnel Ministry.