The Gujarat government has directed that when public grievances involve two or more departments, the principal department concerned will be held responsible for ensuring their resolution. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel pressed officials to reduce delays and improve accountability during the State SWAGAT public grievance redressal programme held on Monday.
Reviewing grievances received under this month's State SWAGAT programme, Patel instructed district administrations and government departments to ensure that citizens’ applications are resolved in a speedy, transparent and time-bound manner. He said district-level officials should thoroughly examine applications and take decisions at the district level wherever possible, while matters falling within the state government’s jurisdiction should be forwarded without delay.
“The responsibility for resolving issues involving two or three departments will rest with the principal government department concerned,” Patel directed, stressing that applicants should not be left waiting for prolonged periods because of inter-departmental coordination issues.
The Chief Minister heard representations from citizens who attended the state-level online grievance redressal programme in person. More than 120 applicants were present at the Chief Minister’s Office Public Relations Unit to submit their grievances.
The June session of State SWAGAT was held today instead of the customary fourth Thursday of the month because the state-wide school enrolment drive is scheduled from June 23 to 25. A total of 5,200 representations received through State, District and Taluka SWAGAT platforms were forwarded to the relevant departments for action.
This included 2,228 representations received at the district level and 2,854 at the taluka level. Among the matters raised were issues relating to rehabilitation land, encroachments on grazing land and discrepancies arising from land re-surveys. Farmers from Chhota Udepur and Mehsana districts presented their concerns directly before the Chief Minister.
One applicant from Chhota Udepur said land due to him under a rehabilitation package had not been allotted despite his original land being submerged by an irrigation project. Patel ordered immediate action and said it was inappropriate for the applicant to face repeated hardship because of a lack of coordination between two district administrations and the Irrigation Department.
Assigning primary responsibility to the Irrigation Department, he directed officials to allot alternative land within 30 days. In another case, a farmer from Mehsana district complained that the recorded area of his land had reduced following a re-survey.
Patel instructed the district collector to ensure immediate measurement of the land and completion of corrective action within 15 days. He also directed the Inspector of Land Records (ILR) office to act responsibly in addressing disputes related to land measurement and re-survey corrections and to resolve farmers’ grievances within prescribed timelines.
The Chief Minister further instructed officials to avoid unnecessary correspondence between Mamlatdar offices and the ILR office and instead work through coordinated mechanisms backed by effective monitoring. Patel also intervened in a case concerning encroachment on grazing land in Visnagar taluka.
Although a decision had already been taken during District SWAGAT proceedings, action had not followed. The Chief Minister directed the district collector to remove the encroachment immediately. Emphasising the role of district administrations, Patel said district collectors are the appropriate authorities to resolve district-level issues and should take the lead in ensuring timely and effective decisions on public grievances.
Additional Chief Secretary to the Chief Minister Sanjeev Kumar, Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar, Officers on Special Duty Dhiraj Parekh and Rakesh Vyas, along with senior secretaries of the concerned departments, attended the programme. District collectors and other administrative officials joined the proceedings through video conference and provided additional information on the cases under consideration.