Petitions gathering Dust In CM’s Cell as Officers Snub It’s Directives

Directives of CM’s Grievance Cell flouted by Officers with Impunity

                     “Awaz-e Awam” Fall On Deaf Ear

Jammu, 31/Dec/2017: Online Public Grievance Redressal Platform of the State government  which is popularly known as Chief Minister’s Grievance Cell is slowly loosing its command as the administrative departments and other governemnt institutions  are not complying the directives issued by this Cell.

This is clearly evident from the way the officers defy the time limit fixed for disposal of the grievances. Even the quality of disposals of the grievances of the citizens by these departments are not satisfactory.

Citing the example of a petition related to Jammu Municipal Corporation, RTI activist Raman Sharma alleged that despite 3 reminders issued by the CM Cell, no action is taken by the JMC on  his petition which was submitted with the cell through online portal on 12/Nov/2017, this petition was further transferred to the corporation the very next day by one Deepak Bangaroo an official of the Grievance Cell with note “I am directed to request you to kindly redress the grievance of the complainant within 15 days marked as Regular as mentioned in new SOP of JK Government (HCM’s) Grievance cell after ascertaining its genuineness”.

In the last almost fifty days, moreover 3 reminders have also been issued to the Jammu Municipal Corporation for disposal of the case but so far neither any action is taken on the complaint nor any intimation is given to the complainant or the grievance Cell. It is pertinent to mention here that as per the new Standard Operation procedures of this Grievance Cell, a petition should be disposed of within 15 days. The petition no 76588 of Raman Sharma is related to rising pollution in the River Tawi and demand of erection of caution boards near the bridges over the River bringing awareness amongst the people about the River Tawi and Pollution.

Citing another example of one Parveen Singh, a BPL category student having 60 percent Loco Motor Handicap, who had also submitted a petition to the Chief Minister’s Cell, Sharma informed that complaint no 78455 was submitted on 07/12/2017, and it was further forwarded to the Jammu University with direction to dispose of it within 15 days but till date no action is taken on this complaint by the university.   

In two other petitions bearing no. 79073 and 79074, the office of Divisional Commissioner Jammu disposed of  them without any direction or redressal of the grievances.

Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had inaugurated the Chief Minister’s Grievance Cell at Civil Secretariat, Srinagar on 4th September 2009 there by creating an opportunity for the people of Jammu and Kashmir to register their complaints through web based application and get details about the status and nature of disposals. So far, the grievance cell have received 79861 complaints from citizens and http://jkgrievance.nic.in portal have more than 21 Lac visits by the internet users.