Jammu, June 2: The Government today directed administrative secretaries to regularly hold meetings with the public for the redressal of their issues which were affected due to Covid19 pandemic.
The fresh directions came in view of decline in Covid19 cases,” said an official.
“It has been observed that due to the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic, Government-public interaction has been affected in recent weeks. Due to limited mobility, the general public having grievances in various departments could not visit the Civil Secretariat for their redressal,” an official said, quoting a circular issued by the General Administration Department (GAD).
In these directions, the administrative secretaries were directed to facilitate the redressal of these issues / grievances.
Therefore, the official said: “It has been decided that all Administrative Secretaries shall be available for attending public grievances on daily basis (except on days of tour) between 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. in person or on notified telephone numbers or on video conferencing facility for redressal of public grievances.”
“Accordingly, all Administrative Secretaries are directed to fix time slots (preferably 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.) on daily basis for meeting general public, delegations, and representatives for hearing public grievances either in their offices or on notified telephone numbers or through online video conferencing facility,” reads the circular.
They were advised to schedule telephone numbers and web links to be widely publicized for information of the general public.
Meanwhile, the GAD has directed all the Government departments to strictly implement Public Service Guarantee Act, 2011, and notification of Citizen’s Charter.
“In order to effectively disseminate information regarding details of services being provided by various Government Departments, the procedure for availing these services and timelines within which these services are to be provided to the citizens and for better public service delivery, all departments shall strictly ensure the implementation of the Public Services Guarantee Act by providing the notified services as per the prescribed timelines,” the GAD has directed departments.
All the departments were directed to publish a Citizen’s Charter clearly stating the mandate of the department alongwith its services including procedures, standards, quality, time frame etc.
Similarly, the details of grievance redressal mechanism and how to access shall also be stated in the Citizen’s Charter.