State-Wide Attention on Public Grievance by Application of Technology

“People’s voice is the key driver of a democracy and listening to that voice is the key test of Good Governance.”- Shri Narendra Modi

SWAGAT- functional from the year 2003 is an innovative concept that enables direct communication between the citizens and the Chief Minister. In Gandhinagar, the fourth Thursday of every month is a SWAGAT day wherein the highest office in administration attends to the grievances of the common man.

SWAGAT – The online grievance redressal system helps common people to seek redressal of their pending grievances once a month. There is a three-tier grievance redress system in Gujarat: Taluka, District and State level. All grievances are reviewed by the Chief Minister himself. The review is done based on the problems solved and not on the petition disposed.

Overview: During the session

•Grievances are logged in, transmitted and made available online to the officers concerned who have to reply within 3 to 4 hours.

•The departments concerned then have to be ready with the replies, before 3 p.m., when the Chief Minister holds video conference with all the districts concerned.

• Applicants are called one by one and the chief minister examines each complaint in detail.

•The information sent by the department is also reviewed online in the presence of the complainant and the Collector/District Development Officer/Superintendent of Police and other officials concerned.

•Attempts are made to offer a fair and acceptable solution on the same day and no applicant has ever left without any firm reply to his grievance.

SWAGAT relies on ICT Infrastructure, particularly the Gujarat State Wide Network GSWAN, which was commissioned in 2001. It connects the Central State Secretariat with all central ministries and departments, with all 25 district headquarters (the second tier of state government), with hundreds of district-level offices, and with all 225 taluka headquarters (the third tier of state government). A relatively simple intranet-based application was developed in order to administer and manage the SWAGAT cases.

Gujarat Chief Minister extended the SWAGAT program up to village level in the name of GRAM SWAGAT on 1st February 2011. Swagat Online program going rural has helped the rural people living even in remotest corner of the state get their problems solved quickly.

Swagat Online

Shri Narendra Modi says, “The real test of good governance is its grievance redressal system. That should be at the root of any democratic system that people should not only be able to voice their problems freely but also get their problems solved quickly.”

For more details on SWAGAT, see the slideshow below…