- Developing connect imperative to understand problems: CS
- Grievances redressal mechanism further strengthened
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, June 22: After Administrative Secretaries and Deputy Commissioners, the Government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has even asked the District and Tehsil level officers of all the departments to meet public on regular basis to take stock of their grievances and update on the same to their respective Heads of the Departments and DCs from time to time.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that in a recent meeting of the Administrative Secretaries chaired by Chief Secretary Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, detailed discussion was held on the results yielded by the public grievances redressal mechanism already in place at various levels in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
It was observed in the meeting that public grievances are being listened and resolved right from the level of Raj Bhawan up to Deputy Commissioners and the existing mechanism should be further extended up to Tehsil level.
Accordingly, Chief Secretary directed all the Deputy Commissioners to ensure that their District and Tehsil level officers also meet the public on regular basis. “This is imperative to further strengthen the public grievances redressal mechanism and to develop more better connect with the common masses”, sources said quoting the observations of the Chief Secretary.
They further said, “now the Deputy Commissioners will fix the days for the District and Tehsil level officers for hearing public grievances. These officers will be asked to update their respective Deputy Commissioners and Heads of the Departments on the disposal of public grievances from time to time as this mechanism will help the Government in analyzing the performance of the District and Tehsil level officers”.
The Government has already asked all the Administrative Secretaries and Deputy Commissioners to furnish reports on weekly basis highlighting the steps taken for redressal of grievances brought to their notice by the public for the appraisal of the Lieutenant Governor’s Secretariat.
Stating that timely redressal of public grievances is the top priority of the Government, officials said that while Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha is himself conducting Awam Ki Awaaz to disseminate the progressive steps taken by the administration and seek public feedbacks to make the process interactive, participative and people centric, the Lieutenant Governor’s Grievance Cell promptly acts on the grievances/complaints received on the portal and ensure their disposal in a time bound manner by coordinating with the concerned departments.
All the Administrative Secretaries are available for attending public grievances on daily basis (except on days of tour) between 2.30 pm to 3.30 pm in person or on notified telephone numbers or on video-conferencing facility for redressal of public grievances.
There are standing instructions for all the Administrative Secretaries to furnish details of action taken on the grievances of the people on weekly basis to the General Administration Department for appraisal of the Lieutenant Governor’s Secretariat.
Similarly, all the Deputy Commissioners in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir are already under instruction to remain available in their offices between 2.30 pm to 3.30 pm every day except on tour days for meeting general public/delegations for redressal of their grievances.
“They are submitting Action Taken Report (ATR) on the weekly basis to the General Administration Department as per the given format mentioning the number of public hearings conducted, number of persons/delegations met and number of grievances redressed”, sources said, adding “moreover the Deputy Commissioners are organizing Block Diwas to assess the progress of developmental works being executed in different sectors besides redressing the public grievances and providing services to the masses at their door-steps to strengthen the grassroots level democracy”.
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