Assam: PGR Day turns out to be popular with number of complaints on the rise

There were long queues at the reception counters since 9 am. People from different parts of the district gathered outside the Deputy Commissioner’s conference room seeking redressal of their grievances. Every Tuesday the administration holds PGR Day. Today’s is the third in the series.

Majority of the complaints received  pertained to land issues such as pattas and demarcation, civic problems of Hailakandi Municipal Board and Lala Town Committee, scarcity of drinking water, deplorable condition of roads, water logging, jobs on compassionate grounds, non completion of projects, on schemes like MGNREGA and IAY, disconnection of power supply, non replacement of transformers, delay in getting pension benefits, ration card,  vendor licence, wages, compensation for damage of houses due to cyclonic storm and death of cattle following electrocution.

Deputy Commissioner Adil Khan directed the district heads and officials of different departments to address the issues within a fixed

timeframe.

Khan also asked the Circle Officers and BDOs to conduct inquiry into some of the complaints of the public centering around issues such as inordinate delay in completion of developmental works like improvement of roads, non implementation of sanctioned schemes, demarcation of land, granting of land pattas, encroachment of government land and obstruction posed by anti-social elements to developmental works.

The Deputy Commissioner while hearing the grievances of the people for almost four hours assured the complainants that their genuine problems would be addressed by the administration in a timebound manner.

Some of the issues were resolved on the spot by Deputy Commissioner Khan, much to the delight of the complainants while the rest were forwarded to the heads of concerned departments for redressal of grievances within a stipulated timeframe.

Alimuddin Laskar of Matijuri Paikan who accompanied his next door aged neighbour to the venue said, “Citizens use RTI because they do not have any other means for grievance redressal. A grievance redressal mechanism such as this one will make officials responsible. It should be synergetic with the RTI. Citizen can ask information under RTI and seek action under grievance redressal. People grievance not being met is the worst thing to happen. Officers get salaries for and they should be answering to people for that.”

Meanwhile, following the directive of Deputy Commissioner to the Chairperson of Hailakandi Municipal Board to perform its duties with commitment and sincerity in the wake of lot of public complaints, the board has fixed first and third Saturday as public grievances redressal day.