Background:Bihar had a system of Public Hearings -Janta Durbar -where the Hon’ble Chief Minister, other ministers and bureaucrats right down to the Block Level took cognizance of people’s complaints. While the system was robust –especially after the introduction of an award-winning IT infrastructure and software – the outstanding issue was one of complainants returning to the Janata Durbars. A small minority of complainants stated that their complaints were not redressed even though official records listed them as ‘Disposed’

Aim and Objectives:Viewing public grievances from the point of the public, the Government of Bihar decided that its focus would be on redressal of redressable grievances. It aimed to completely re-engineer the process and not just improve the efficiency of previous systems. Learning from its success of the Bihar Right to Public Services Act, the government decided that a legal right and a completely independent structure were necessary to ensure redressal, as opposed to mere disposal of complaints. The Bihar Right to Public Grievance Redressal Act 2015 was thus born. This Act ensures a legal right to complainantsto have an opportunity for hearing and redressal within a maximum time limit of 60 working days. The law also created a new class of independent quasi-judicial officers who would act as neutral instruments of the government and without prejudice to either thecomplainant or the responsible public authority. This legal right completes the three pillars for good governance: right to a) information; b) public services and c) public grievance redressal.Failure to comply with the mandate of the system attracts penalties and disciplinary action against the respective PGROs or Public Authorities. The Act provides for two levels of Appeals and another for Revision.

Coverage:The Act covers the entire state of Bihar ( 38 districts and 534 Blocks) and 514 programmes/plans/schemes notified by 44 departments of the Bihar government. There is no pre-qualification to register a grievance and no applicant is turned away irrespective of the genuineness or otherwise of the grievance.

Implementation:Independent, quasi-judicial Public Grievance Redressal Officers (PGRO) were carefully selected. Every Sub-Division, District and Department was provided with citizen-friendly infrastructure, Hard and Software, and IT Executives. A strong IT infrastructure that connects all PGROs, key public authorities, appellate and monitoring authorities. 24x7 access is provided for registering grievances and accessing records. The entire process from registration to redressal is digitized and available on-line. Bihar Prashasanik Sudhar Mission Society (BPSMS) is the nodal agency for implementation and monitoring. It has introduced new features continuously and now complainants can register their grievance through mobile application too.

Monitoring:The BPSMS was also made the nodal agency for monitoring for results. Initially monitoring was restricted to a few elements: timeliness, infrastructure and human resources. Independent micro-evaluation studies were ordered by the government to identify implementation bottlenecks through the Governance Technical Assistance Support Team funded by the DFID. For sustainability, the Government of Bihar provided funds as part of its regular budget to BPSMS within a few months, doing away with the initial support it took from DFID.

Achievements:

Much of the rest complaints are pending within time limit. Efficiency (Disposal of cases within time) stands at 99.2% and Effectiveness (Redressal of Grievances) stands at about 80% in the first instance at PGRO level; if cases that are satisfactorily settled at the 1st Appeal level are added to this figure it goes up to 91%. Satisfaction of citizens in the final hearing have been recorded at 89%; this concurs with about 10% of complainants who go on appeal. Long-pending grievances have been redressed, the record being a 36-year old case.

The BPSMS has won the Kalam Innovation in Governance Award (KIGA) 2018. It was also a finalist in the National e-Governance award for 2018. Recently it has been conferred the Order of Merit for the 52ndSkoch Summit.

Apart from many national level awards, Certificate of distinction accorded to Bihar for the implementation of BRPGRA by CAPAM (Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management) during International Innovation Awards 2018 in Georgetown, Guyana.

The Government has also provided online services for Bihar Public Grievance Redressal System. Citizen can avail the services through given link:-

Bihar Public Grievance Redressal System