Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS)

Centralized Public Grievance Redress And Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) is an online web-enabled system developed by NIC, in association with the Directorate of Public Grievances (DPG) and Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG).

For aspirants preparing for the IAS exam, the CPGRAMS is an important topic to be prepared for the upcoming exams. 

CPGRAMS – Overview

• Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) is an online platform available to the citizens 24×7 to lodge their grievances to the public authorities on any subject related to service delivery.
•  It is a single portal connected to all the Ministries/Departments of Government of India and States. 
• Every Ministry and state have role-based access to this system. 
• CPGRAMS is also accessible to the citizens through a standalone mobile application downloadable through the Google Play store and mobile application integrated with UMANG.
• The grievances received by the Department are forwarded to the concerned Ministries or Government Departments, who are dealing with the fundamental functions linked with the grievance for redress under intimation to the complainant. 

Aspirants would find this article very helpful while preparing for the UPSC 2021.

Functions of CPGRAMS

CPGRAMS is an online web-enabled system. Given below are the functions of the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System:

1. Based on web technology, the system mainly aims to enable the submission of Grievances by citizens of the country anytime and from anywhere.
2. The Department aims at picking up a minimum of 1000 grievances per year, based on the seriousness of the issue, follows them, and solve them until completely solved.
3. Once a grievance is raised on the web portal, a specific registration number is generated and any citizen who raises a grievance can follow up the progress through the personalized registration number.
4. If any citizen has any complaint against the Government, its Ministers, or any department, they can approach the CPGRAMS to get a faster solution to their problems.
5. The CPGRAMS will enable the online lodging of grievances by citizens to the concerned Organizations which can be linked to their official Web site. 
6. CPGRAMS also provides an appeal facility to the citizens if they are not satisfied with the resolution by the Grievance Officer.
7. After the closure of grievance, if the complainant is not satisfied with the resolution, he/she can provide feedback. If the rating is ‘Poor’ the option to file an appeal is enabled. 
8. The status of the Appeal can also be tracked by the petitioner with the grievance registration number.

Issues that are not taken up for redress:

• Subjudice cases or any matter concerning judgment given by any court. 
• Personal and family disputes. 
• RTI matters. 
• Anything that impacts upon territorial integrity of the country or friendly relations with other countries. 
• Suggestions.

For any complaint against corruption, this portal cannot be used. For such complaints, a citizen must directly contact the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs.

Some relevant articles for General Studies Paper II preparation for UPSC are provided below-

How to Raise a Complaint in CPGRAMS?

Citizens who wish to raise a complaint against any government Ministry or Department can raise a grievance at the official website of the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances.

Given below are the steps that can be followed to raise a complaint against any Ministry or Department:

1. Visit the official site (pgportal.gov.in) and select the ‘Lodge a Grievance’ option on the home page.
2. Register yourself on the portal with a valid username and password.
3. Once you are registered, you can update the grievance form available online and follow it up until it is resolved completely.
4. People can also check the status of their grievances and also the number of grievances pending and resolved on the same online portal. 
5. There also is an option of reminders/clarifications, where one can find the newly received notifications or clarifications from higher Officials and Authorities.

Once a grievance is lodged online by any citizen, it is received by the Nodal Officer and then further forwarded to the concerned Officer for redress and quick actions to be taken against the grievance. Then the received grievance is addressed at the Board level.

Final Outcome of a Complaint

For every grievance raised, there is an assessment done for each of them:

1. Examined at out Level: This notification implies that the assessment has been done on the Local Office. In this case, the Officials send an acknowledgement letter to the complainant.
2. No Action is Required: This specifies that the grievance raised has been rejected and the complainant is notified for the same in the acknowledgement letter along with a reason to reject it.
3. Taken up with Sub-Ordinate Organisation: The grievance will be forwarded to a single or multiple Sub-Ordinate Officials, based on the level of grievance raised.

This topic is also of importance for the current affairs section for candidates preparing for other government exams. 

UPSC exam-related links are given below for candidates convenience in the preparation.