Increase in public grievances on COVID-19, govt receives over 10,500 complaints

New Delhi, Apr 05: Over 10,500 public grievances related to coronavirus have been received by the central government and instructions have been issued to all departments to ensure their disposal on priority basis, the Personnel Ministry said in a statement.

"The daily public grievances being filed on the portal have increased from 333 on April 1 to 2,343 on April 6," it said, adding that the disposal of public grievances pertaining to migrant labour and essential commodities has been given the highest priority.

The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public grievances (DARPG) has issued advisories to all line ministries/ departments and state governments to ensure disposal of COVID-19 public grievance cases on priority basis preferably within three days, the statement said.

Union Minister Jitendra Singh, while taking review of departments under the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, was informed that the DARPG launched a national monitoring dashboard on COVID-19 grievances on April 1 (https://darpg.gov.in ) and the portal has received 10,659 public grievances as on April 6, the statement said. Singh took a comprehensive review of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), DARPG and Department of Pensions and Pensioners' Welfare (DoPPW) through interactive video conferencing.

The Minister of State for Personnel reviewed the steps and initiatives taken by the DoPT during the lockdown and its preparedness to bring in normalcy after the restrictions are lifted. Every section of DoPT has identified priority items of work which they shall be completing while working from home, the statement said. "The Additional Secretary/Joint Secretary would be closely monitoring the progress," it said.

The Integrated Government On-line Training (IGoT) platform has been rolled out for training workers in and outside the government on COVID-19 matters, it said. Grah Kalyan Kendras are working to manufacture face masks, the statement said. Further, the DARPG has attended to media tweets and reports on television channels on issues pertaining to food requirements of migrant labour, the statement said.

Daily reports on receipts and disposal of source wise and category wise grievances are being submitted by DARPG to the empowered group of ministers, empowered group of officers on public grievances and suggestions, empowered group of officers on essential commodities and empowered group of officers on migrant labour, it said.

Singh was informed that the entire department of pensions is functioning 100 per cent on e-office with all officers working through VPN connection and the department has also enabled inter-ministerial exchange of files on e-office, the statement said. Approximately four lakh SMSs were sent to pensioners informing them about the precautions to be taken with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic, it said.

The department is also organising a tele-consultation program for 100 pensioners across Indian cities through video conferencing with a senior doctor of the Department of Geriatric Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences on April 9 followed by another session on yoga and fitness for elderly pensioners on April 13 also through video conferencing which will include pensioners from 24-25 Indian cities, the statement said.

These programs will be repeated after the lockdown period to ensure physical and mental fitness of the pensioners who being senior citizens are a vulnerable group, it said. All officials of DoPT, DARPG and DoPPW have committed to contribute one day's salary to the PM CARES Fund for COVID 19 relief operations, the statement said. Civil Services' Officers Institute (CSOI) has also contributed Rs 25 lakhs to PM-CARES fund, it added.