Bihar Cabinet nod for quick redressal of govt staff grievances

The Bihar Cabinet Friday gave its nod to a set of rules for quick redressal of service related grievances of both serving and retired government employees.

According to the Bihar Government Servant Grievances Redressal Rules 2019, the grievances will have to be addressed within 60 days, an official said.

The decision has been taken on the lines of the Bihar Public Grievance Redressal Act that empowers people to get their grievances redressed within a specific time frame.

"With the state cabinet giving its nod to the Bihar Government Servant Grievances Redressal Rules, serving and retired government employees can now also get their service related grievances redressed within a specific time frame," the Principal Secretary of Cabinet Secretariat Department, Sanjay Kumar, told reporters here.

"Its effective implementation would also help in reducing the service related cases in courts," Kumar said.

Both serving and retired employees can submit online applications relating to different kinds of grievances such as appointment, medical reimbursement, promotion and retirement benefits, he said.

Officers in the rank of Additional District Magistrate (ADM) in the districts and an officer in the rank of a Deputy Secretary at department level have been nominated as 'Service Grievance Redressal Officer', Kumar said.

The grievances will have to be addressed within 60 days, failing which the aggrieved can file an appeal before the district magistrates in the districts, and before the secretary, principal secretary and additional chief secretary at department level, Kumar said.

In another major decision, the Cabinet sanctioned Rs 5,193 crore for subsidy to different category of power consumers in the state for 2019-20.

It also gave its nod to five projects worth Rs 392.08 crore under the Namami Gange project for construction of Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) at Fatuha, Maner and Bakhtiarpur towns in Patna district, and Chapra and Sonepur towns in Saran district, an official said.