Bhubaneswar: Addressing the House on the second day of the Odisha Assembly Monsoon Session, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said, “My government has always given top priority to peoples’ grievance redressal. Before Covid-19 happened, the CMO used to hold grievance hearings in Bhubaneswar. People from all over the state used to come and submit their grievances and there was a robust system to solve them. It gave hope to the people to reach out to the highest office of the state.”
According to the Chief Minister, when Covid-19 happened the CM grievance cell was closed due to restrictions for almost two years. It was restarted after normalcy returned. However, post-COVID-19 Covid-19 the average number of grievances and people coming to grievance cells had come down. “Two years of Covid-19 disruption caused dislocation in grievance redressal and I thought of reaching out to the people by taking the CM Grievance Cell to the doorsteps of the people to cover all blocks and urban local bodies of the state in the shortest period possible.”
“The CM Grievance Cell is handled by the CMO and, as per my directions, officers from the CMO conducted decentralised grievances cell in all the districts of the state. This mammoth exercise was carried out in more than 190 locations over a period of six months. Every day three to five venues were covered and in the process, 57,442 petitions were collected from the people, and as of date 43,536 petitions have been resolved or disposed of,” the Chief Minister elaborated.
“The entire exercise is transparent and technology-driven. All the petitions and the action-taken reports and the stage of disposal are available in the Janasunani portal. Legacy issues have been resolved in follow-up meetings and within the next two to three months most of these historic issues pending for years together will be resolved,” he added.
“Petitioners are given written replies and phone calls are made on feedback through Mo Sarkar. I would say with all conviction that this is one of the biggest and most effective people’s grievance redressal exercises carried out by any government in the country. All of you may remember that during COVID-19, I sent the same team along with senior officers to monitor Covid-19 management. When others were inside their homes, the CMO team with other senior officers risking their lives was visiting district after district getting feedback and monitoring the COVID-19 situation. This helped us make quick decisions and save precious lives in our state and also help other states.”
The Chief Minister further stated, “Now coming to your political criticism of this whole exercise. The CM Grievance Cell is always handled by the CMO and Hon’ble Ministers are not required to attend the same in Bhubaneswar. Once petitions are received, they are sent to concerned departments. Where is the issue of Hon’ble ministers versus officers in this? Hon’ble ministers have played a major role as heads of the departments in resolving the petitions. It’s teamwork at the highest level and is professionally done in a democratic setup.”
“The aim is to resolve people’s grievances in the best possible manner. If all these 57,000 petitioners (most are community petitions) had to come to Bhubaneswar to attend CM Grievance Cell how much money they would have had to spend on travel and stay, and how much wage loss they would have suffered? All this has been saved by the CM Grievance Cell travelling to the doorsteps of people. As regards chopper use, I would like to clarify that it would have taken one and half years to do the same exercise by road vis’-a-vis’ by chopper. Every day conducting three to five meetings in different locations is humanly impossible within a window of 10.00 am to 3.00 pm which is convenient to people. In the last three and half years we have spent about Rs 40 crore on chopper,” the Chief Minister clarified.
“On an average Rs 1 crore to 1.5 crore is spent on chopper every month. In the past six months when chopper was used intensively to reach out to the people, the average expenditure was the same around Rs 1 crore to 1.5 crore per month. It’s completely false and misleading to say that excess expenditure has been made.”
He further said, “The CM Grievance Cell has been conducted in all the constituencies in a very professional manner. This exercise was also used to explain to people about the schemes of the state government, the ongoing projects in their areas, and the funds sanctioned for the same. It was my specific instruction to give timelines for resolving grievances. I sincerely appreciate Hon’ble ministers, the district administration, the CMO, the departments, and all others involved in carrying out this mammoth exercise so professionally.”
“The Opposition members should be happy that so many grievances in their areas have also been resolved. I do not understand how someone can oppose the solving of people’s grievances. Such opposition is anti-people and people will give them a befitting reply for such attitude. After all, we are in public service and peoples’ grievances are our topmost priority.”
“People are happy… peoples’ representatives are happy …Opposition members should not be unhappy because of political reasons. For my government, people come first, resolving people’s issues is a top priority and I will continue to do so in the best possible manner,” Patnaik concluded.
