Public Grievance Redressal Mechanism in Revenue

Department

Grievance handling has become one of the most imperative yet a sensitive area of
responsibility for any government organization in the contemporary scenario. It is
because, the present day’s public undertakings and ministries have become more
responsive and citizen friendly due to a rise in the level of general awareness and media
interventions. Consumer grievance redressal is an important function of an efficient,
transparent and responsive revenue department for strengthening confidence among the
citizens. The main objective of this mechanism is to provide a platform to the citizens to
voice their opinions, lodge complaints against the service anomalies of the department
and to offer a feedback on the functioning of the department. Most importantly, a sound
grievance redressal mechanism bridges the communication gap between the citizen and
the department and thus establishes a sense of accountability among the revenue staffs. It
may be said that a sound grievance handling mechanism can become a moment of truth
for any organization. The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances
(DARPG) is the nodal agency involved in formulation of policy guidelines on grievance
handling and specifies certain crucial parameters which make a sound complaint
management system. These parameters are given below:

 Accessibility: A sound grievance handling should be easily accessible to the

citizens for addressing their complaints. The entire mechanism is essentially
decentralized and is handled independently at each level. Publicly notified
grievance officers are appointed for the purpose of meeting the aggrieved citizens
on some fixed schedule and fixed days of the week. The contact details of these
officers are widely publicized through the help of media. Besides this,
information and facilitation counters are being set up in different divisions which
have a large public interface.

 Simplicity: Any grievance handling mechanism must follow simplicity in its

procedures and guidelines, which are normally laid down by the nodal agencies at
the apex level and publicized for the general awareness of the public. Nodal
agencies such as DARPG, the Department of Pensions and Pensioners’ Welfare
(DP&PW) and the Directorate of Public Grievance (DPG) in the Cabinet
Secretariat, set up a transparent public friendly grievance systems in government
bodies and monitor the progress and disposal of grievances on a selective basis.

 Timeliness: DARPG has fixed a maximum time limit of 15 days for

acknowledgement and 3 months for final disposal and reply to any complaint.

 Fairness and Transparency: Transparency in decision making and its

communication to the public through some interactive platforms ensure fairness in
the entire system and thus helps in winning the trust and attention of the public
towards the activities of the state.

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 Confidentiality: An effective grievance handling mechanism must ensure
confidentiality particularly in the matters of dispute settlement in land revenue or
police cases. With the increasing dependence on the usage of information
technology, care is being taken in introducing confidentiality in the grievance
softwares even.

An accountable grievance redressal system should be open to scrutiny of clients and

government by publishing information related with service delivery standards in the
system, annual reports and other public documents. For protecting the public
interests, citizens’ charters have been designed at centre, state and local levels which
describes the public entitlement to the services of revenue department, standard of
services, layers in decision making, schedules and time limits of different services
and information on standard of services. Besides this, a public grievance redressal
committee with secretary as its head at the state level monitors the progress and takes
remedial actions for the smooth functioning of the system.

Model Framework for Consumer Grievance Redressal System:

Avenues: These are the various channels for available in the hands of a citizen for
registration of a complaint and the selection of a particular channel depend upon
factors like accessibility, effectiveness and trustworthiness. Few of the most preferred
channels are:

 Phone
 Walk in

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  Online Consumer Grievance Redressal system

The effectiveness of a grievance system can be enhanced by increasing the number of

touch points for a citizen and also increasing the geographical spread of these touch
points for them. The selection of touch points should be based upon the consideration of
factors such as the socio economic profile of the citizens and also there preferences for
various options.

Complaint Redressal Process: The complaint redressal process involves registration of

a complaint, its monitoring, analysis and reporting and resolution of a complaint.

Feedback: This is the last stage in the complaint redressal process which is essential for
understanding the effectiveness of the system in place and also maximizes citizen’s
satisfaction by introducing improvements in the system based upon the feedback received
from the citizens.

Public Grievance Redressal mechanism at District level in Revenue Department of

Uttar Pradesh- An Overview

In India, a district is the administrative unit of a state and this administrative unit
transforms the policies of a state into action. The Revenue Department plays a key role in
the overall civic administration at the District, Taluk and Village levels. At the district
level, the District Collector who is also a District Magistrate is the civil administration
head and is supported by various functionaries such as District Revenue Officers,
Revenue Divisional Officers, Revenue Inspectors, Tahsildars, Village Administrative
Officers and other supporting staffs.

Out of a gamut of functions to be performed by the revenue department at district level,

grievance redressal is also one of the most crucial functions which bring the public and
officials of the department in a common platform. With the help of information
technology and other innovative initiatives, government of Uttar Pradesh has ensured an
implementation of sound and transparent grievance redressal mechanism. Grievance
Redressal mechanism at a district level in Uttar Pradesh can be broadly subdivided into
three broad categories:

 LOKVANI:

Lokvani is an e-
governance initiative from the combined efforts of District Administration and

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 National Informatics Centre in Sitapur (Uttar Pradesh). Based on the success of the
newly launched system in Sitapur, it was introduced in several other districts of Uttar
Pradesh. Lokvani is a Hindi word which means the voice of people. It is a powerful
single window governance interface for offering a transparent, accountable and
responsive grievance redressal mechanism and other allied services. This solution has
emerged as one of the most successful and influential e-governance solutions of the
government as it offers the citizens a privilege to interact with the government on
several issues without coming to any government office. This model is a highly cost
efficient and a user friendly one which aims at bridging the gap between the common
man and the strategy makers. This is a web enabled service for lodging of complaints
and dissemination of information about various government schemes. A Lokvani
Society at the district level takes care of the administrative and the technical aspects
regarding the implementation of this software. This society provides licenses to
centers such as cyber cafes, kiosks and computer training institutes for becoming
Lokvani centers for delivering the required services. Lokvani website also offers
services such as:
- Arms License Status
- Janmilan Complaint status and action taken report
- Information about the District Supply Office and many others.

Some of the key stakeholders involved in implementation of this project at district,

subdistrict and local levels are district magistrate, lokvani operators at different centers.

The Process of Grievance Redressal through Lokvani Web Enabled System:

The process begins with the registration of a complaint into the Lokvani website which is
then transmitted to the collector’s office. The collector then marks the complaint to the
specific officers and sets a fixed time limit for its disposal. The complaint is updated in
the website and the complainant can make frequent follow-ups and monitor the status of a
complaint online. Within 24 hours of registration of a complaint, it reaches the concerned
office or the officer. The officer then subsequently reverts to the collector with the action
taken on the complaint within a specified time. If for any particular reason the complaint
is not redressed within a specified time frame, the concerned officer may request for extra
time from the collector. The progress and status of each complaint is consistently fed in
the program for effective monitoring by the respective officers. All complaints are
assorted in terms of offices, types of complaints, date of registration, etc. which helps in
effective monitoring, ensuring transparency and accountability. The District Magistrate
can regularly track the progress of different complaints and take appropriate actions
against any kind of irresponsibility from the erring officials. The system allows
generation of immediate reports on the complaints which have been redressed or are
pending. The citizens can equally make regular follow-ups for a speedy action on their
issue and can offer a feedback on the entire process, thereby ensuring openness in the
entire transaction. The Lokvani center operators enter the complaint on behalf of the
complainant, which essentially imply that the citizen need not be literate or an expert in
computing skills. The complainant receives a copy of the complaint and the database
keeps track of the status filed by a particular Lokvani center.

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Source: Price Water House Coopers

Source: Price Water House Coopers

Some of the advantages of the Lokvani System of Grievance Redressal are given below:

1. It is a time saving procedure and is easily accessible to the citizens through the
vast spread of Lokvani kiosks at different tehsil offices and blocks in district
levels.
2. Time bound redressal of each complaint.
3. Monitoring has become more effective, focused, transparent and accountabilities
are clearly defined.
4. Officers and the complainants can check the status of their complaints on mobile
phones through the integrated voice response system and short message service
which have been added to Lokvani.

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5. Lokvani has created newer opportunities of self employment for the players of
private kiosk centers and they earn handsome returns with very small investment.
6. Lokvani has facilitated a direct connectivity with the masses and has led to a more
systematic approach in solving the problems of people.
7. The system has facilitated computer awareness among the government officials
and also the citizens, which has improved their exposure and comfort levels with
the usage of modern technology.

 Tehsil Divas: Tehsil Divas is mostly observed on a specific day of a week like
Tuesdays for instantaneously redressing the grievances of the public at the tehsil
office, which is presided by a senior administrative official. About more than 100
complaints are addresses on every tehsil divas and the solutions are offered on the
spot.

Source: Price Water House Coopers

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  Janmilan Programme: Through this programme the grievances are heard by the
District Magistrate on every Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. A receipt
against the complaint is issued by the District Magistrate. This mechanism of
grievance settlement enables taking care of more than 100 complaints on each
day.

Source: Price Water House Coopers

 Regular Grievance Redressal Mechanism: In this system, the complainant

submits a complaint to the concerned office personally and directly. The status of
a complaint can be tracked by the complainant manually by meeting the
concerned officer personally.

Source: Price Water House Coopers

The mandated time duration for disposal of services for different categories of grievance
redressal mechanism is given below:

Lokvani: 15 days for action taken report.

Janmilan: 15 days for action taken report
Tehsil Divas: On the spot action to be taken or in the next tehsil divas
Regular Grievance Redressal: None

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Problems involved in implementation of a sound mechanism of grievance redressal

Implementation of lokvani project was quite difficult because of the resistance from all
quarter’s public officials and an overdependence on old public grievance redressal
mechanism. Implementation of lokvani was more of a strategic concern than merely a
technical issue.

Some of the challenges which the administrators encounter are:

 The attitude of the concerned District Magistrate towards this change initiative
and the support and involvement extended by him towards the officials in making
the project a success.
 Resistance from the working officers due to a change in the process with the
introduction of new technology. Lokvani has significantly increased the
accountabilities and transparency in the entire redress mechanism, which certainly
at times has gone against the vested interests of few corrupt officers.
 Lack of proper awareness about the usage of the systems at each officers level and
moreover, most of the systems were not even completely automated. Still most of
the works were done manually which included a lot of paper works even.
 Lokvani is merely treated as a measure for communicating information about
diverse welfare schemes. Citizens still have to visit the district headquarters/tehsil
personally for getting some remedial solutions to their grievances.
 High level of corrupt practices on the part of the revenue officials refutes the
purpose of implantation of a sound, scientific and a transparent grievance
mechanism.
 The hierarchical layers, red tapism, and delay in the process of addressal of a
complaint due to an excessive involvement of cumbersome procedures equally
pose multiple problems in ensuring the success of a grievance mechanism. The
revenue department at the district level pays a lot of importance to the set of
complicated procedures, inputs, time limits and physical resources instead of the
outcomes and the expected results. As a result of which, the consumer grievances
remain unaddressed and the citizens remain dissatisfied because of an unusual
delay in the finalization of decisions or settlement of disputes.
 The officials lack a sense of proper understanding of the needs of the citizens and
equally are not really very sensitive towards their issues, as a result of which the
quality of service delivery gets adversely affected.
 Most of the officials are governed by an attitude that the citizens are the takers of
government services and they are the givers, which gets manifested in their
behavior also. They tend to behave in the most discourteous fashion and in the
most rude and crude manner. This attitude needs to be reoriented for an efficient
service delivery and promoting maximum service delivery.
 Inefficiencies in maintenance and retrieval of documented records at the time of
requirement in district, taluk and village level are also one of the major problems
in the grievance redressal mechanism of revenue department. Many citizens are
even denied the availability of an acknowledgement in a written format for
submission of an application, as there is no system of proper monitoring. Because

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 of the absence of a prescribed application form, many citizens furnish inadequate
information which further leads to inefficiencies in the entire process of
monitoring and feedback.
 Lack of general public awareness about the grievance settlement initiatives
equally poses a major threat to the success of the entire process. Pamphlets or
notices elaborating the details of the information to the general public on
grievance related issues are also absent, as a result of which the quality of an
outcome gets impaired.

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Few Cases on the Issues which the citizens have against the Revenue officials:

A kiosk owner expresses his frustration on the operation of Lokvani project and the
attitudes of the officials towards the citizens:

According to him, “the officials in a district level consider themselves to be much

superior in level than the prime minister and they have completely forgotten the very
reason for their existence in this job. Several senior officials refuse to offer any
enquired information related with the RTI act and on submission of an application,
they just simply ignore and reply that the enquiry is in process.”

Similarly, a citizen regards the senior administrators and the status of Lokvani as:

According to him, “the District Magistrate is highly irresponsible and inspite of

submission of complaints for several times through the Lokvani, the response has been
frustrating. He considers the Lokvani to be merely a show piece which does no good to
the general public.

Such reports and incidences prove that, Lokvani is an effective strategic move but the
loopholes exist from the side of the administrators in terms of their commitment and
willingness to work.

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A Study of the Employee’s mindset towards the administrative system:

 The employees normally accord very high importance to addressing day to day
routine requirements as a result of which strategic planning and envisioning gets
completely neglected.

 The employees lack effective foresight which leads to unnecessary extra

concentration on the immediate requirements by sidelining the bigger picture.

 The employees enjoy an extra comfort level in maintaining their status quo and
are highly resistant to any progressive change.

 They are highly incompetent in handling adverse situations and are good at
shedding their responsibilities to others by simply expressing their helplessness in
addressing such constraints.

 Directive and autocratic style of leadership prevail in the work front as a result of
which the employees prefer conformity to commitment.

 Proactive style of handling their functions as a response to emergency situations.

Active participation and performance is quite rare in this form of an
organizational set up.

 Lack of participatory learning and focus on priorities. Performance is rarely

managed with appreciation.

 Lack of mutual trust, respect and harmony in teams.

 Lack of open, frank and free communication.

 The employees generally are unwilling to take up initiatives in a bureaucratic

administrative system.

 The system is usually insensitive towards the satisfaction of the needs of the
internal and external customers.

Further, few of the systemic problems which multiply the problems of the employees are:

 Poor capacity building

 Unattractive incentive system.

 Outdated and restrictive rules and procedures

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 Systemic inconsistencies in promotion and empanelment.

 Lack of proper accountable and transparent procedures.

 Arbitrary and whimsical transfers which breeds insecurity in the minds of the
employees regarding their tenures.

 Excessive political interference.

 Erosion of values and ethics.

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 Suggestions for improving the Grievance Redressal Mechanism

 Simplification of some cumbersome procedures: A sound and a powerful

grievance redressal mechanism must be very simple and should include more
visible and interactive redressal practices by curbing unnecessary formalities at
the grass root levels in submission of a complaint.

 Streamlining of Information Flows: Information flows may be streamlined and

more organized by facilitating more transparent, trust based transactions and
customized service orientation by giving extra emphasis to e-governance
applications, usage of IT tools and better organized front ends of service delivery
points. A special priority may be accorded to the deprived sections of the society
through these e-governance applications.

 Special Reorientation of the Front –End Staff: Front end staffs can be
motivated and reoriented by organizing special workshops and meetings which
may be of tremendous help in broadening their perspectives towards the general
requirements of common masses and in facilitating a two way interactive process.
The staffs of lokvani centers may receive focused technical and general training
on the overall objectives of implementation of e-governance initiatives in the
redressal of a grievance and besides this the administrative officials at the district
level may be sensitized on the key requirements and expectations of the citizens
from their efforts. A special training should be provided to the officials that they
should adopt an approach of “your problem is our problem” and should
proactively respond to citizen’s queries and issues.

 Redesign of front end offices of government: Government offices may be

redesigned in a professional way which may ensure provisions for maximum
display of pertinent information to the general public, help desks and availability
of modern communication facilities. These offices must have a complaint desk
manned by a dedicated staff that would be responsible for recording the details of
the complaints into the system.

 Centralized Call Centers and SMS system: A centralized call center should be
established and toll free helpline numbers should be given for these call centers.
Through SMS system the citizens can be made aware about the status of their
complaints and immediate confirmation may be provided on registration of a
complaint. This facility can be of immense help in circumstances when a
concerned official is unable to monitor or track the status of a complaint
registered by a citizen on an online due to some impending responsibilities or
busyness he may be reminded with the help of an SMS.

 Developing robust performance appraisal and incentive systems: Robust and

smart performance appraisal systems should be developed which would

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 essentially be giving undue importance to the number of complaints resolved by
an official and the average productivity should be directly interlinked with the
performance based incentives for motivating the staffs. Besides this penalties
should be imposed for an unsatisfactory feedback received from a complainant.

 Periodic Meetings in open forums: Periodic meetings should be amongst the

officials of different divisions and the major findings of the system generated
reports should be presented for further in depth analysis on some crucial issues
and soliciting suggestions and opinions from officials for improvising the system
and making it more customer-centric.

 Public Disclosure: Besides obtaining a regular feedback for soliciting

information from the customers on their satisfaction over the redressal of a
complaint and the overall process, the data/information on consumer complaints
received over a year should be made available for public scrutiny. The
information should normally be able to present a trend analysis over the
performance of a department in a district in terms of efficacy in complaint
handling mechanism.

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Review of Successful Grievance Redressal Practices in Major Cities:

Grievance Redressal System in Karnataka: Karnataka government has introduced an

Online Public Grievance Redressal System (PGR) in July 2005 in 57 towns across the
entire state with the objective of providing an efficient and a transparent public grievance
redressal system. The system enables the customers in voicing their grievances and
monitoring the progress of its redressal in the most efficient manner. The system also has
a provision of categorizing the most recurring complaints for understanding the nature of
problem most intimately and adopting corrective actions for addressing such issues
proactively. Karnataka government has designated 2-3 software engineers for handling
the system at each PGR and for providing training to the officials for handling the system
without any problems.

Grievance Redressal System in Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC): The e-

governance module of AMC has bagged the ‘e-India 2009’ award in the municipal IT
sector in 2009. For registration of complaints, their allotment to the concerned officials in
different wards, automatic escalation in case of non-resolution of complaints and
facilities for tracking the status of complaint an IT enabled automated system has been
developed. Besides this, AMC has also initiated an SMS based complaint registration
system in two districts for providing timely resolution of grievances to the citizens and
improving accountability amongst the officials.

Grievance Redressal System in Jamshedpur Utilities and Services Company Limited

(JUSCO): For addressing consumer grievances, JUSCO Sahyog Kendra was established
which allows single window access to the complainant for the registration of complaints
and its follow-ups on a 24x7 basis. JUSCO Sahyog Kendra also has a provision of
registering recurring or repeat complaints for performing an in depth analysis on the
nature of a complaint and the rightful course of action taken for its resolution. One of the
most unique practices of JUSCO Sahyog Kendra is for monitoring the effectiveness of
the complaint redressal system, they randomly pick up 100 job cards on a daily basis and
make calls to the concerned customers to check whether the complaint is addressed and
receive a feedback on their satisfaction regarding the action taken for resolving their
complaints.

Grievance Redressal System in Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC): SMC is divided

into 7 zones and introduced its automated complaint lodging and monitoring system in
October 2000. Once all the complaints are lodged they are directly fed into a central
database called Automated Complaint Loading and Monitoring (ACLM) system which is
based on Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) Software. The complaints registered
are then categorized on the basis of priorities as emergency complaints, high priority
complaints, medium priority complaints and general complaints. Subsequent to the
registration of a complaint, the ACLM software directs it to the concerned official and
upon its addressal the officer calls the helpline number for updating the status of a
complaint.

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Grievance Redressal System in Raipur Municipal Corporation (SMC): The Raipur
grievance redressal system still functions manually as an automated system for
registration and redressal of complaints has still not been developed. The grievance
redressal system is known as a Single Window system or ‘Ekal Khidki Pranali’ which
was launched in July 2009. Prior to the introduction of a systematic and structured
complaint registration system the complainant had to personally meet the concerned
department head and submit his complaint. In Single Window system, 8 single window
counters have been opened in all the 8 zones. A citizen can lodge his complaint by
submitting a written application in a prescribed complaint form, which is made available
in these counters and ensuing the registration of a complaint it is then forwarded to the
concerned departments on the very same day. RMC has also published a citizen’s charter
which details out the timelines for the various services offered by them. The status of
complaints are monitored on a monthly basis at the RMC head office which are reviewed
by the Municipal Commissioner after receiving the details of the complaints from all the
zonal offices.

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Conclusion:

It may be concluded by saying that, for setting up a sound grievance redressal system in
place reforms are imperative from almost every quarter and change leaders should be
developed who can play the role of innovators instead of silent spectators and passive
reactors. Introduction of automated systems may not be the only solution, as attitude
rebuilding and winning of employee commitment and involvement for embracing this
new technology is also a high priority. Moreover, measures should be taken for ensuring
that good performance is rewarded and penalties are imposed for any delay or neglect of
responsibility for improving the overall productivity of a department and of a system as
well. Major time and resources should be invested in winning the involvement and
commitment of the citizens for delivering successful outcomes.