RTI online complaint over encroachment

Assam Tribune: Jorabat: Monday, 31 August 2015.

“Encroachment on land belonging to Jorabat Prathamik Vidyalaya is a serious issue as there is only one Assamese medium school in Jorabat area,” said social activist and chief advisor to Jorabat Sankardev Nagar Unnayan Samiti, Bal Kishan Pareek.

Pareek approached well-known RTI activist Okram Prasanta Singh for further help in the matter. The RTI activist filed an online complaint on the issue to the Commissioner and Secretary, Department of Pension and Public Grievances, Government of Assam, Mahatabuddin Ahmed through online complaint portal CPGRAMS (Centralized Public Grievance Redressal and Monitoring System).

The complaint was filed today by the RTI activist. In an interaction with The Assam Tribune, he said that he had filed many such complaints both to the Government of India and the Government of Assam on various public grievances.

However, the RTI activist alleged that the State government does not acknowledge such e-complaints and takes no responsibility until the online receipt is manually taken to the Commissioner and Secretary’s office.

Singh gave examples of such e-complaints which he had to manually register to the Commissioner’s office in the State Secretariat building.

Singh added that it is the responsibility of the officer designated for redressal of the complaint and to see to it that the complaint is acknowledged within three days from the date of receipt of the complaint, and action on the complaint must be taken within two months of the receipt according to page no 57 of the Compilation of Guidelines for Redress of Public Grievance after showing a copy of the said page.

He said that because many people in Assam and India are unaware of the procedure of e-complaints and the procedure of working of the complaint system, the government is taking advantage of the same and fooling the common people. He added that once every citizen becomes aware of the system of online complaint portal CPGRAMS website pg.gov.in and the government implements it properly, no single government official can engage in corruption or neglect his official duty.