Dr Jitendra Singh inaugurates National Workshop on CPGRAMS Reforms organised by DARPG
New Delhi: The MoS (PP) Dr Jitendra Singh said that Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has institutionalised the grievance redressal mechanism in the manner which did not happen earlier. He was addressing the National Workshop on Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) Reforms, organized by Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, here today. During the event, Dr Jitendra Singh launched the CPGRAMS reforms for Departments of Financial Services and Telecommunications (DoT). He also launched the ‘Online Hackathon on Data-Driven Innovation for Citizen Grievance Redressal’. The Minister also inaugurated an exhibition on CPGRAMS.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Jitendra Singh said that Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has adopted the mantra of ‘Maximum Governance, Minimum Government’, since the very beginning. He said that this approach is closely associated with citizen participation and citizen centricity, which leads to citizen satisfaction. The Minister added that the Government has taken many ‘out of box’ decisions, which were to benefit the last man in the queue. He quoted the examples of self-attestation, doing away with the interviews at lower posts. These steps required strong will and determination, he said. The Minister also mentioned about many initiatives that have been taken by the DARPG during the last five years. He said that the format of PM Excellence Awards has been changed substantially, which has encouraged almost all district collectors to participate in it. Quoting other initiatives, the Minister said that the practice of posting young IAS officers as Assistant Secretaries in the Central Ministries and Departments for the initial 3 months of their service has been started by the Government. He spoke about other initiatives such as Shillong Declaration and regional conferences on good governance conducted by the department in various parts of the country. Dr Jitendra Singh said that the number of grievances lodged with the Government have increased 8 fold, from about 2 lakh in the beginning of the Government to about 16 lakh at present, which depicts the pro- activeness, sincerity and timely response of the Department. He also mentioned about the RTI portal from where the RTIs can be filed anytime from anywhere. He added that the states need to be more pro-active in handing Public Grievances. The Minister further emphasised that awareness needs to be created among the public about the grievance disposal mechanism. He asked the states and UTs to adopt these mechanisms to resolve grievances of public. The workshop being organised today is a part of these endeavors, the Minister added.
The Secretary DoPT & DARPG, Dr C. Chandramouli said that the Prime Minister has given the mantra of ‘reform, perform and transform’. The Government needs to function to transform the life of common man and redressal of their grievances is very important for it. He said we need to focus on monitoring the quality of grievances, along with focusing on the quantity.
The Secretary, Department of Posts, Shri P. K. Bisoi said that D/o Posts has the largest postal network where Aaadhar Enrolment centres are also associated. He mentioned about call centres in Varanasi and Patna. The Grievance redressal is a very critical activity of any administration, Shri Bisoi added. He said that CPGRAMS has made public delivery system more citizen-centric.
The Member, Railway Board, Shri Manoj Pande said that railways caters to various categories of customers with a large base. He said that Railways is committed to offer superior services to its customers. He mentioned about the ‘Rail Madad’ integrated helpline with single no 139. He said that with CPGRAMS reforms, the system has shifted from top-down to bottom-up approach.
The Member (Services) Telecom, Shri Debatosh Manna said that Grievance Portal helps in giving boost to PM’s Digital India Mission and increases effectiveness. He said DoT is the most active contributor in the evolution of CPGRAMS. He added that complaints in DoT are of high volume and spread to large geographical area. He added the 7.0 version of CPGRAMS will help in making maximum use of technology in resolving the grievances. He emphasised upon providing the quality redressal of the complaints.
The Additional Secretary, DARPG, Shri V. Srinivas said that National Workshop on CPGRAMS reforms marks a major step of the Government for systemic improvement in the Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System. The new upgraded CPGRAMS version 7.0 provides for grievances filed on CPGRAMS to be directly sent to field level grievance officers by providing user ID’s to all field level functionaries, he said. As part of the DARPG’s 100 days agenda, the CPGRAMS reforms were launched in Department of Posts on September 25, 2019, Shri Srinivas added. Speaking about online Hackathon, he said that citizens have also been invited to share their ideas on streamlining the management of public grievances on CPGRAMS through an Ideas Box which has been operationalised on DARPG website in collaboration with MyGov. He said that this is the 3rd National Conference/Seminar/Workshop of 2019 being convened by the DARPG. The National e-Governance Conference at Shillong, the National e-Governance Seminar at Thiruvananthapuram were part of the Department’s 100 days agenda and now the National Workshop on CPGRAMS Reforms, he added.
During the event, two Technical sessions were also held. The first Technical session was chaired by Additional Secretary, DARPG, Shri V. Srinivas on CPGRAMS Reforms by Posts, Financial Services, Telecom, Railways and Health & Family Welfare. The second Technical session was chaired by Joint Secretary, DARPG, Shri V. Shashank Shekhar and presentations were given by Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar on Public Grievances Redressal System in the States vis-a-vis CPGRAMS.
During the first session, the participants included Ms Alka Mishra, DDG, NIC, Shri Arjun Singh, DDG, Department of Telecommunications, Ms Pratibha NAth, DDG, D/o Posts and Shri Vivek Srivastava, Executive Director, Railway Board. Many issues including menu driven mapping of grievances, CPGRAMS 7.0 version, Bottom-up approach, Online Hackathon on Data-Driven Innovation inviting ideas through crowd-sourcing, were discussed during the session. In the Online Hackathon, students, corporate, Academia, MSME, researchers, Start-ups and individuals can participate. The link is http://innovate.mygov.in.
During the Second session, Shri V. Shashank Shekhar, Joint Secretary, DARPG said that the DARPG teams have visited J&K 3 times in the recent past. He emphasized upon the personal hearing of the grievances. While giving her presentation, Dr Pratima Verma, Additional Mission Director, BPSM, Government of Bihar said that there is a legislation in Bihar passed by legislature in 2015, and the implementation started in 2016. Mentioning about the Bihar Right to Public Grievance Redressal System (BRPGR), she said that three rights have been provided to the citizens, namely right to Hearing, Redressal and right to Information about the decision. She also spoke about the modes of complaint filing e.g. through posts, online web portal, toll free no, email and mobile app and said that all complaints are digitised. It has led to parity among the citizens, she said. Shri Chandrashekar Borkar, Executive Director, MPSAPS, Government of Madhya Pradesh spoke about the MP CM helpline 181. He also mentioned about its integration with CPGRAMS.
While giving her presentation, Under Secretary, J&K, Ms Azeeta Qureshi spoke about Jammu and Kashmir LG’s Grievance Cell. She said ‘Awaaz-e-Awam’ portal is an integrated application system based on web technology. The objective is to provide one-stop platform and interface for citizens for redressal of their Grievances, she said. She added that all Advisors are conducting ‘public darbars’ in Srinagar and Jammu at JKGGC office, where human interface is an important aspect. The Special Secretary, Government of UP, Shri Visak G, spoke about the CM Helpline number and Mobile App. He said that a system of Monthly Performance Report (MPR) exists there. He also mentioned about ‘Jansunwai’ portal during his presentation.
The workshop was attended by the various Central and State Government representatives.