MCD Election 2017: Delhi corporations fare the worst in public grievance redressal system

Municipal Corporations of Delhi fare the worst in redressing public grievances among all the government agencies and departments providing services in the capital city, as per records obtained from the Delhi government’s Public Grievance Monitoring System.

Firstpost obtained data related to public grievance redressal of 21 government departments and agencies from the system where the MCDs top the list of pending cases. Data obtained by Firstpost comes as a shot in the arm for the Aam Admi Party, that is far behind in the MCD electoral race than BJP and Congress party.

As per the records maintained in the system the total number of complaints concerning the MCDs in the last two and a half years was 50983, out of which 5588 number of cases were resolved satisfactorily, leaving more than 45,000 cases pending.

A source in the Public Grievances Monitoring System told Firstpost that a total number of 2,26,573 number of cases were filed in the last two and half years against all the departments and government agencies providing services in the capital city, out of which nearly 45,000 cases were resolved satisfactorily. Pending cases related to the MCDs constitute 25 percent of the remaining 1,81,573 cases which do not fall under the ‘closed satisfactorily’ category in the system. No other department or government agency has matching number of pending cases.

Representational image. Reuters

The Delhi Police which comes second to all the MCDs taken together, in number of pending cases, has more than 20,000 cases unsolved. During the above said period 23430 number of public complaints was received by the PGMS against the Delhi police and only 2095 Cases were solved satisfactorily. A source in the PGMS told Firstpost that the Delhi Police does not fall in the ambit of the state government and the state government is left with only the power to request it to attend the complaints.

Neeraj Kumar another official with the PGMS said to Firstpost that same is the case with the MCDs. “When a complaint is raised against any department of the Delhi government, we can put pressure on them as we are also a part of the same government. But we cannot issue order to the MCDs, as they are not under the Delhi government” he said.

Answering a question on why there are so many cases that remain pending in the MCDs, he said that there are many cases which are not resolvable satisfactorily even if the MCDs want to. As per the record with the PGMS there are 2949 number of cases against all three MCDs which are in the not resolvable category. He also said that there are also cases which are not attended by the officials of the MCDs. “We constantly remind them about the unattended cases,” he added.

MCDs also have one of the highest numbers of unattended cases. As per PGMS record the North Delhi Municipal Corporation has 15.42 percent the South Delhi Municipal Corporation has 10.74 percent and the East Delhi Municipal Corporation has 18.39 percent of unattended cases.

The Delhi Development authority tops the list of unattended cases with 24.29 percent of it’s cases in the overdue list. The MCDs deny the PGMS data and resort to blame game when asked about the laxity of the civic bodies in redressing public grievances.

Sanjeev Nayyar, Mayor North Delhi Municipal Corporation said to Firstpost that these data are lies. “These are all made up data. I have nothing more to say about that,” he said. On the other hand Satya Sharma, Mayor East Delhi Municipal Corporation said to Firstpost that it is the officials deputed by the Delhi government who exercise whims on crucial issues have caused the inconvenience to the public. “We have written time and again to the Delhi government requesting to remove these officials, but no action has been taken. These officials get support from the Delhi government for whatever they do,” she said. But an official in the PGMS rubbishes these allegations saying that all the complaints registered in the system are written complaints.
“Even to mark a complaint as ‘satisfactorily resolved’ we take consent from the complainant over telephone. We do keep record of every step of the procedure right from filing of complaint to disposal. Moreover these are digital evidences which none can make up,” he said.

Even many residents of Delhi complain about the shoddy public grievance redressal system of MCDS. Deepak Dua, a resident of Delhi complained about a problem of stagnation of water in Vijay Vihar Phase 2 in the year 2015 in North Delhi Municipal Corporation’s website. Since his complaint fell on deaf ears, he uploaded it on a portal called www.consumercomplaints.in, but it remained the same even after that.

“Only once they called me up to know my address and I never heard from them after that,” he said. Ashok Agarwal, an activist said to Firstpost that even many departments of the Delhi government have failed to dispose complaints satisfactorily. “The PGMS is a toothless organisation which legally cannot take any action on any official who declines to attend public complaints, hence many departmental cases too remain unresolved,” he said. There are few departments and government agencies which have performed dismally in resolving public grievances satisfactorily. Labour Department, being one among them records only 6 percent and Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board, 9 percent satisfaction in disposing grievances.

Neeraj Kumar contradicted this allegation saying that there are many cases which take substantial time resolving not only because they are complicated, but also because they are very old.
“ But no negligence in redressing grievances on the part of any official of the Delhi government is or will be tolerated. There are many instances where the Delhi government has taken strict disciplinary measures against it’s officials in case of negligence in resolving public grievances,” he said. Public Grievances Monitoring System was introduced by the Delhi government soon after the Aam Admi Party rose to power in the year 2015. In this system, a team of officials monitor, administer and expedite redressal of complaints raised by the citizens against the departments and government agencies, providing service in the capital city.