Mechanism for grievances disposal at Panchayat, BDC level
Not even single report submitted since March
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Sept 13: Due to officials’ apathy, the Government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is unaware of the results being yielded by the detailed mechanism, which was put in place for disposal of public grievances at the Panchayat and the Block Development Council level several months back.
The Administrative Council in its meeting held on December 3, 2019 under the chairmanship of the then Lieutenant Governor Girish Chandra Murmu had decided to install a complaint box in every Panchayat of the Union Territory for people to register their grievances.
Accordingly, complaint boxes were installed in each and every Panchayat by the Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj to facilitate people in projecting their grievances before the Government from their respective door-steps.
Vide Circular No.9 dated March 4, 2020, the Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj prescribed a uniform time bound procedure for opening of the complaint boxes and redressal of grievances and all the concerned officers were asked to follow the same strictly.
Initially, there was little response from the people but with the passage of time they started putting their grievances in the written format in these complaint boxes with the hope of early redressal by the concerned authorities. However, despite lapse of several months the Government is completely unaware of functioning and outcome of this mechanism of grievances redressal, official sources told EXCELSIOR.
“This is mainly because till date the Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj has not received any consolidated report either from its Directorates or from Additional District Develop-ment Commissioners, who otherwise have key role to play in ensuring success of this mechanism”, they disclosed.
In the detailed procedure, it was specifically mentioned that monthly report at each level must be consolidated by the Additional District Development Commissioner and sent to the concerned Director, Rural Development Department, who shall consolidate the information and send it to the Administrative Department.
“Moreover, for want of detailed monthly reports the Government is groping in dark about disposal status of complaints at the level of Panchayats and Block Development Councils”, sources further said, adding “even it is not clear whether Additional District Develop-ment Commissioners and Sub-Divisional Magistrates are assessing the functioning of mechanism bi-monthly/ monthly as prescribed vide Government Order No.05-RD&PR dated February 7, 2020”.
When contacted, a senior officer of the Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj confirmed that not even single report has been received either from the Directorates or from the ADDCs till date. “May be they are busy in duties relating to management of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)”, the officer added.
He, however, admitted that such reports are imperative to assess the outcome of the mechanism which was put in place as per the decision taken by the Administrative Council. “It is only after proper assessment on the basis of monthly reports that improvements in the mechanism can be made”, he said in response to a question.
As per the reports, in large number of Panchayats the timelines for disposal of complaints are not being strictly adhered to much to the disappointment of the complainants.
As per the well-defined procedure, complaint boxes are required to be opened by Panchayat Secretary in the presence of Sarpanch/Naib Sarpanch on every Monday and then details of complaints are required to be recorded in the complaint register maintained at Panchayat level by the Panchayat Secretary.
The complaints which can be settled at Panchayat level are required to be sent to the officials of the concerned line department by the Sarpanch concerned through the Panchayat Secretary and there is a week’s time frame for redressal of the same.
Similarly, the complaints which cannot be addressed at Panchayat level are required to be forwarded to the Chairperson of the Block Development Council concerned and the block level officers of the line departments are required to redress the same within a week’s time. The complaints which cannot be addressed at block level are required to be forwarded to the District Development Commissi-oner concerned for disposal.
“If the Government really wants this mechanism to work for the welfare of the people then it should initiate all possible steps to make concerned officials accountable for submission of monthly reports”, sources stressed.
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