Delhi: In one year, 70% spike in complaints received by L-G’s redressal mechanism

The reason behind the sharp rise in the registration of complaints could not be ascertained, as repeated calls and texts to Raj Niwas officials went unanswered. The increase coincides with the L-G’s debut on Twitter in January, 2017.

Since then, the L-G Secretariat started generating grievance registration numbers while responding to tweets complaining about issues concerning civic bodies, Delhi Development Authority, various Delhi government departments and the Delhi Police, among others.

The disposal rate of the complaints, recorded since 2014, also appears healthy. In 2014, 6,174 complaints were disposed out of 6,207 that were registered.

In 2015, 4,400 complaints were registered and 4,336 resolved. In 2016, the corresponding figures were 5,538 and 5,391. In 2017, of the 9,429 complaints, 9,003 were addressed, the Raj Niwas stated in the RTI response.

In 2018, about 7,177 of the 9,131 complaints registered till August 31 had been resolved.

Officials said the maximum number of complaints pertain to civic issues, crime and traffic woes. “Once a complaint is registered, a grievance number is given to the complainant through SMS. Then the complaint is forwarded to the nodal officer of the department concerned for taking necessary action,” an official said.

A dedicated cell, comprising a section officer, assistant programmer and data entry operators, reviews the status of the complaints every 15 days, the official said.

Najeeb Jung had taken over as L-G in 2013. After he quit in December 2016, Anil Baijal had taken over. The ‘Listening Post’ grievance redressal window was launched in 2007 by then L-G Tejendra Khanna.

Initially, complaints had to be registered through a helpline. Subsequently, a dedicated website was launched. Finally, Twitter also became a medium.

The Delhi government had established a Public Grievances Commission in 1997, bringing all its complaint redressal cells under it. The Arvind Kejriwal-government, after assuming office, had announced measures to augment the public grievance monitoring system, which runs parallel to the L-G’s Listening Post.