Dr Jitendra Singh launches CPGRAMS reforms in Department of Posts

Dr Jitendra Singh launches CPGRAMS reforms in Department of Posts

Reforms will lead to reduction in grievance disposal time and improved quality of grievance redressal Amendment in Rule 54 of CCS (Pension) Rules to be effective from 1st October, 2019 Decision to amend Rule 54 reflects Government’s sensitivity towards the citizens; says Minister CPGRAMS reforms to be replicated in other Central ministries in the coming months

The MoS (PP) Dr. Jitendra Singh said that the Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has focussed on digitalisation in the functioning from the very beginning. He said that the priority of the Government is to provide transparent and citizen-centric governance to the people. He was addressing at the launch of Centralised Public Grievances Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) reforms in Department of Posts, at a function organised by Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, here today. The Secretary (DARPG & Pensions) Shri K. V. Eapen and Director General Posts, Smt Meera Nanda and senior officers were also present on the occasion. The Grievance officers representing the Departments and Ministries also participated in the event.

Dr Jitendra Singh said that the new version of CPGRAMS will lead to reduction in grievance disposal time and improved quality of grievance redressal. The Minister also mentioned about the monthly “Pragati” (Pro Active Governance and Timely Implementation) review meetings where the Prime Minister himself reviews the status of public grievances. He mentioned about various other initiatives such as amendment in Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. He said that DARPG holds regular regional conferences and also the national e-Governance conferences. He further added though Grievance redressal mechanism existed in the past also, yet it was not as proactive and responsive as it is now. The mechanism has been institutionalised now with the number of grievances lodged increasing from 2 lakh earlier to about 16 lakhs now. This increase is due to the trust shown by people of the country in the grievance redressal mechanism of the Government, the Minister said. Dr Jitendra Singh said that the telephonic calls are made by the senior officers of the Department to the complainants to take their feedback about their satisfaction level. He said that the decision of the Government to post young IAS officers as Assistant Secretaries in the Central Ministries/departments for a period of 3 months has proved to be beneficial for the young recruits to understand the functioning the Government in the very beginning of their careers.

Speaking about the recent decision of the Government to amend Rule 54 of the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, the Minister said that this decision shows the human angle of the Government and reflects its sensitivity towards the citizens. The Government has amended Rule 54 of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972 by a notification dated 20th September, 2019. As per the amended Rule, the family of a Government servant, who dies within seven years of joining service, will also be eligible for family pension at enhanced rate of 50% of last pay drawn, for a period of 10 years. The Minister said that this reform is one of the citizen-centric reforms in the first 100 days of Modi Government’s second term. He added that the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi is also approaching and this reform will be effective from 1st October which marks the eve of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary.

The Secretary (DARPG & Pensions) Shri K. V. Eapen said that the decision to amend Rule 54 will benefit the people of the country, specially CAPFs with young deaths. Though simple, it is far-reaching reform, he added. He further said that Public Grievances are more of a feedback system to the Government to understand the root causes of the problems. He said that the Department has conducted a study by QCI to analyse the root cause of grievances in various ministries/departments.

Delivering her inaugural address, Smt Meera Nanda said that making public service delivery system transparent has been the priority of the Government. She added that the public grievances mechanism is important for the departments with large public interface. Ms Nanda added that keeping in mind the mammoth operations of the Department of Posts, some complaints are inevitable. She said till now top-down approach towards grievance redressal was followed and now with the new version of CPGRAMS, the complainant has been empowered. This will also save the processing time by about 7-10 days, she added.

In his welcome address, Shri V. Srinivas, Additional Secrertary, DARPG said that the CPGRAMS reforms marks a major step of Government for systemic improvement in the CPGRAMS. The CPGRAMS 7.0 version is proposed to be replicated in the rest of the Central ministries in the coming months, he added. He said that currently the DARPG handles about 16 lakh grievances every year of which 95% are being disposed off satisfactorily.

On the occasion, Shri Vishvapavan Pati, ADG, Department of Posts gave a detailed presentation where he said that the span has been widened in the new version of CPGRAMS with pin-pointed mapping of units. In new version 7.0, there are 540 subordinate units, against 67 units under 6.0 version. Under new version, there will be almost no manual intervention with mapping of 1.5 lakh post offices. Shri Sanjiv Narain Mathur, Joint Secretary (Pensions) also gave a detailed presentation about the amendment in Rule 54 of the CCS (Pensions) Rule, by giving a comparative view of old and new rule.

Dr Jitendra Singh also inaugurated CPGRAMS 7.0 exhibition on the occasion. The exhibition displayed launch of revised version 7.0 of CPGRAMS by DARPG. The exhibition also contained exhibits from Department of Posts and Quality Council of India (QCI). The Department of Posts had displayed information related to launch of various stamps from time to time and their brief significance. DoP also displayed new initiatives of the Department and information related to launch of PG portal in DoP. The QCI had displayed brouchers related to the study undertaken by them in top 20 grievance receiving ministries and measures taken by them to streamline the disposal of grievances.

The Government has taken a major step for systemic improvement in the Centralized Public Grievances Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS). The new upgraded version CPGRAMS 7.0 provides for greivances filed on CPGRAMS to be directly sent to field level grievance officers by providing user IDs to all field level functionaries. CPGRAMS Reforms has been a major thrust area for the Government and has been included in the 100 days agenda of the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances as also the Department of Posts. The Department of Posts is one of the largest recipients of Public Grievances in India. It is expected that the CPGRAMS 7.0 will cut processing time by 50 percent in the Department of Posts.

The DARPG launched the CPGRAMS for receiving, redressing and monitoring of grievances from the public. The CPGRAMS provides the facility to lodge a grievance online from any geographical location. It enables the citizen to track online the grievance being followed up with Departments concerned and also enables DARPG to monitor the grievance. The citizen can then access the system through www.pgportal.nic.in. The DARPG has issued several guidelines for redress of public grievances by Departments to ensure the system is accessible, simple, quick, fair and responsive. These include designating a senior officer as Director of Grievances/Grievance officer in every office, deal with a grievance in a fair objective and just manner fixing the time limit for disposal of work relating to public grievances and staff grievances.