Kawaljit Singh Bali
Good Governance is the buzz word in present times. In most lucid terms, it may be defined as a responsive, proactive, socially sensitive, citizen friendly and citizen caring government focusing on the rights of the citizens. The focus of good governance is on the citizen by making public administration more open, transparent and accountable. Among other things that are imperative for operationalzing the good governance such as creation of institutional mechanisms to protect the rights of the ordinary citizens (e.g. NHRC,NCW etc),use of information technology in governance, bringing in legislations like the RTI Act for transparency and openness; perhaps, the most important is the setting up of robust and responsive grievance redressal mechanisms.
With public administration becoming more welfarist in orientation, the point of contact between the citizen and administration have increased and further, citizens depend on administration for most needs of their life. Naturally, there will be grievances and as such Grievance redresssal mechanisms becomes an indispensable part and parcel of the administration. Modern day public administration can’t claim to be accountable, responsive and user friendly unless it has established an efficient and effective grievance redressal mechanism. In fact, the grievance redressal mechanisms of a government act as a measure to assess its efficiency and effectiveness as it provides important feedback on the functioning of the administration. Grievances if not redressed promptly can lead to dissatisfaction of people for administration and can have a destabilizing effect.
Talking about our state, among the various legal and institutional frameworks already in place for redressal of grievances, The Jammu Kashmir Governor’s grievance cell(JKGGC) stands out as the most effective and dynamic point of contact between the administration and the citizens of the state. Popularly known as the “Awaz A Awam” meaning the voice of the people, the Governor’s Grievance cell is a well designed web portal (www.jkgrievance.in) providing citizens the convenience of allowing them to lodge a grievance through their mobile phones or computers from even the remotest corners of the state. The web portal provides a seamless procedure ensuring the systematic recording of every grievance by assigning a unique grievance tracking number that can be used to track the progress being made by administration in resolving the grievance and facilitating the submission of reminders and clarification related to the grievance.
Since the imposition of the Governor’s rule in the state on June 20,2018, the Governor’s administration has taken many effective steps to improve and synergize the functioning of the Governor’s Grievance cell. Apart from periodically reviewing the functioning of the Governor’s grievance cell personally; the Hon’ble Governor Sh. Satya Pal Malik has directed all the four Advisors to meet and hear grievances of individual citizens, delegations, departments and civil society organizations at Jammu and Srinagar on weekly basis. Moreover, every district today has a dedicated grievance redressal cell running under the supervision of the Deputy Commissioner concerned striving to ensure outcome-based resolution of grievances. The success of these efforts can be gauged form the fact that as on March 15, 2019, in almost nine months, the Governor’s Grievance cell had received 54225 grievances/ complaints; of which 53816 have been dealt with after forwarding to concerned quarters for subsequent disposal.
Based on the figures, one can say that the grievance redressal rates of the current administration are appreciable and the next step may be to encourage citizens to register all the grievances that exist but go unreported. Concerted efforts in the shape of establishing dedicated grievance redressal mechanisms in various field offices backed by the modern day information technology tools is certainly going to make the whole process less dialatory.Though, only registration of grievances never means the redressal of the same but it creates a catalog that can act as an important indicator of the progress that any administration makes during the course of its functioning. Further, capacity building of the field officers and officials may be taken to make them more empathetic and humane towards the grievances of the citizens and replacing feigned compliance of subordinates with enthusiastic response at the ground level.
The Governor’s grievance cell has certainly played a pivotal role in bringing the administration close to the ordinary citizen. The process of initiation, processing and redressal of grievances creates a sense of belongingness between the people and the Government. It is a feeling where people form the most relegated sections of the state think they are cared and valued by the Government; which, perhaps, is the overarching objective of the modern day democracies.
(The author is a serving KAS officer in the Government of JK. Views expressed are personal.)
feedbackexcelsior@gmail.com
Follow our WhatsApp channel