Mention Aadhaar for filing governance-related grievances: Govt

Move by the Centre is aimed at weeding out false complaints in governance-related matters

To reduce the number of vexatious and malicious complaints, the government has decided to encourage the complainants to mention their Aadhaar card numbers while filing grievances on governance-related matters through an online platform.

The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), which is the nodal agency for formulating policy guidelines for citizen-centric governance, manages a Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System.

People can visit public grievance website — www.pgportal. nic.in — to file their complaints. The grievance can be filed against any government organisation in the country through this portal.

"There have been some vexatious complaints and those with no concrete information. People should be encouraged to mention their Aadhaar number so that false complaints can be separated from the genuine ones and there is no harassment of government officials in the process," a senior DARPG official said.

He said the filing of Aadhaar has not been made mandatory and is an optional field in an application form available online for lodging grievances.

Aadhaar is a 12-digit unique identification number which acts as a proof of identity and address anywhere in the country.

Grievances are now also being monitored by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself through the online Proactive Governance and Timely Implementation (PRAGATI) wherein grievances identified for systemic changes are discussed through video conferencing with the concerned Secretaries.

A mobile application was also launched in October last year which can be downloaded on a smart phone for lodging grievances.

Lakhs of public grievances are filed online every year. About three lakhs grievances were filed in 2014, 2.35 lakh in 2013 and 2.01 lakh in 2012, according to government data.