Telecom, banks, railways get maximum number of complaints

The government also said the citizens' grievances against central ministries increased over three-fold in 2015.

The telecom and banking departments along with the railways accounted for the maximum number of public grievances among the various arms of the government in the last three years, Parliament was informed on Thursday.

The government also said the citizens' grievances against central ministries increased over three-fold in 2015 as compared to the previous year with more than 8.81 lakh complaints having been received from them.

The government attributed the surge to "citizen-friendly" measures adopted by it.

In 2015, a total of 63,964, 53,866 and 46,693 complaints, respectively, were received against the Department of Telecommunications, Department of Financial Services (Banking Division) and Rail Ministry, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Jitendra Singh said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.

While the three departments in 2014 received 52,266, 13,129 and 20,028 complaints, respectively, the figures for 2013 were 37,202, 10,783 and 15,484.

These grievances were received online via the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) set up by the government.

The government has asked the secretaries of all ministries that have substantial public interface to personally examine 10 grievances every week while Additional Secretary or Chairman and Managing Director-rank, and Joint Secretary-level officers are required to examine 20 and 30 grievances, respectively, every week, Singh said.

An analysis of the 20 top grievance-receiving ministries in order to identify the major grievances and undertake root-cause study and systematic reforms is necessary for reducing the grievances, he said.

The telecom department received 10,392 complaints, banks 11,951 and railways 9,382, from people between January 1 and March 7 this year, the minister said.