PM orders reopening of unresolved complaints on Citizens’ Portal

Per sources, the portal had closed hundreds of complaints without resolving them


Muhammad Ilyas November 27, 2019
PHOTO: PID

LAHORE: When the government launched the Citizens Portal in Punjab for people to share their grievances with the government, it served as a ray of hope for many. Even though the system worked efficiently in the beginning, it soon started closing complaints without resolving them.

According to sources, hundreds of complaints were closed without resolution by the portal within three months. Upon learning about the discrepancy, Prime Minister Imran Khan has directed government departments to take prompt action and has ordered a reopening of 529 cases.

Once reopened, the complaints will be handled under the supervision of high officials to ensure that issues have been addressed and resolved appropriately.  In this regard, the Prime Minister’s House has also issued official notifications to all the departments of the provincial government.

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It is stated in the notice that many complaints filed on the Prime Minister’s portal were closed without implementing the guidelines manual, therefore, they should be duly reopened, monitored and resolved promptly.

The Prime Minister’s House has identified complaints filed in July, August and September 2019 to different departments.

Per the directions, a competent authority should be contacted for approval at the time of closing the resolved complaints so that discrepancies do not arise again.

A record of the total number of complaints has also been compiled by the federal government, according to which, the chief secretary of Punjab received 439,504 complaints, out of which 388,773 had been duly resolved. Per the data provided by the government, 22,550 complaints are in process while the remaining ones are still pending.

Sources revealed that there were many issues where the complainants were unaware of approaching the department concerned. Therefore, the complaints were closed without resolution.

Citizens lodged complaints against various government departments, including housing, urban development and the department of public health engineering that together received 36,602 complaints.

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Similarly, the school education department received 38,662 complaints, specialised health care and medical education department received 15,242 complaints, the local government and community development department received 83,488 complaints, 553 against the Punjab land records authority, 723 against the board of revenue, 417 against the zakat and usher department, 33,452 against the primary and secondary health care department, 2,369 against the interior department, 12,390 complaints were received by the chief engineer, Punjab highways and repair department,

433 against the food department, 9,781 against the higher education department, 821 against the Punjab public services commission, 497 against the religion and auqaf affairs department, 10,834 against the communications and works department, 3,572 complaints against the departments of forestry, wildlife and fisheries, 4,658 against the irrigation department, 98 complaints against the law and order affairs department, 65,640 against the police department, 1,498 complaints against co-operative department, 57 against the energy department, 4,870 against the environment protection agency, 2,290 against the finance department, 3, 613 against the industry, commerce and investment, 215 against the information and culture department and 89 against the literacy department, among others.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27th, 2019.

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