Odisha CM begins grievance redressal meets, first by a CM after a gap of 15 years

Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi commenced a in-person grievance-redressal process on Monday, the first such step by a CM to address citizen complaints, after 15 years.

Mr. Majhi will hold grievance-redressal sessions every Monday. It assumes significance as former Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik held his last in-person grievance meeting in August 2008.

Mr. Patnaik had started holding such meetings twice a week after getting elected the first time in 2000 – Fridays were for people from Hinjili, his Assembly constituency and Saturdays for rest of the State.

The sessions continued for around six months before disgruntlement grew. The then government had reportedly failed to keep a tab on grievances of people who had physically met the CM. In 2001, Mr. Patnaik had attended grievance-redressal sessions only for 20 days. In 24 years of rule, he had received grievance petitions in-person for only 76 days.

Last year, V.K. Pandian, former IAS officer and close aide of Mr. Patnaik, had embarked upon controversial grievance-redressal tours. Mr. Pandian had received complaints from 190 places in 30 districts.

During whirlwind tours of all districts by helicopters, Mr. Pandian had received 57,442 grievances, of which 43,536 were resolved. His tours had courted huge controversy as the Opposition alleged that the tours were aimed at launching the Tamil Nadu-born former bureaucrat in the political arena.

The former CM had defended his close aide saying he had approved his tours. Mr. Pandian had spent ₹1 crore to ₹1.5 crore per month towards hiring helicopters. However, the BJP had then alleged that more than ₹500 crore had been splurged for Mr. Pandian’s district tours. There were no budgetary provisions for the grievance-redressal sessions by Mr. Pandian.

Meanwhile, 1,540 grievance petitions were registered on first day while 5,000 people turned up to meet Mr. Majhi at Grievance Cell. Mr. Majhi had personally gone through their grievances. Most of the grievances were related to regularisation of jobs, health and transfer of government employees. He assured that most of the grievances would be resolved.

“My daughter-in-law works as a doctor in Keonjhar whereas my son is posted in Puri. Both husband and wife are living separately for years. I sought the CM’s intervention for transfer of my daughter-in-law,” said P.K. Acharya, who is from Bhubaneswar.

Similarly, Hemalata Mohanty who hails from Karanda area of Dhenkanal said her husband was killed when passing through a land where two sides were engaged in altercation. “The accused was a contractor, a BJD supporter. The police administration was not responding to her complaint,” said Ms. Mohanty who wanted the CM to intervene in the matter.

For smoother grievance redressal, the new BJP government has come up with a website janasunani.odisha.gov.in, in which people can register their complaints. Besides, alternative channels such as email (cmo@nic.in), janasunani app and WhatsApp number (6370951930) have been provided for grievance redressal. People can send their grievances through by post.