At 1.8 mn, grievances against Central depts up 15% in 2019

New Delhi: Public grievances regarding central government departments have increased almost 15% year-on-year in 2019 to surpass 1.8 million, with just five departments accounting for two-thirds of the complaints.

As per government data reviewed by ET, the highest number of complaints, around 409,000, were received against the Department of Financial Services, pertaining to banking services. The telecom department was the second among 88 central government departments, with 268,000 complaints, while the railways (Railways Board) received about 220,000 grievances.

The Department of Posts and Central Bureau of Direct Taxes (Income Tax) got about 158,000 and 145,000 grievances respectively. A senior official said complaints against banking and telecom services were the highest. In 2018, the Centre had received around 1.57 million grievances and disposed 95% of them. But this year, as per the data reviewed by ET, only about 85% of the grievances have been disposed so far.

Under the rules, all grievances must be addressed within 60 days. Most of the grievances that have yet to be disposed are pending for less than 60 days. A senior personnel ministry official said the increase in the number of public grievances showed the “responsiveness of the grievance redressal system under the present government”, as the CPGRAMS portal offers an easy avenue for people to lodge their complaints and track their progress.

The number of public grievances has constantly increased since the Narendra Modi-led government first assumed office in May 2014. The number of complaints went up from around 270,000 in 2014 to 879,000 in 2015, 1.194 million in 2016 and 1.417 million in 2017.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his monthly meeting of the multipurpose and multimodal platform PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance And Timely Implementation), where he takes up grievances of one sector for a review, has been repeatedly asking ministries to reduce public grievances by carrying out systemic reforms as suggested by the Quality Council of India (QCI) in two detailed reports submitted to the government in 2016 and 2017.