Corrective steps must to maintain trust in citizen portal
Pakistan Citizen Portal was established by the PTI government to address people grievances regarding government departments so that good governance can be promoted and public service can be delivered to the citizens at their door steps.
This practice remained a success story during the previous KP government under Pervez Khattak and then chief secretary Azam Khan who provided substantial relief to the people through the CM complaint cell. The reason of previous complaint cell’s success was the then chief secretary and the CM’s personal attention towards the cell. As a result, government departments were also taking complaints of the cell seriously.
In order to replicate previous success story Pakistan Citizen Portal was introduced at the national level by the PTI government but performance of the portal to resolve people issues is not effective and satisfactory in terms of providing relief to the citizens.
In the portal if you register your complaint it is directly passed on to DC Chitral from the system, and from the office of DC Chitral it is further communicated to the relevant department. Officers of the relevant departments keep the complaint in their office for some days and then close the complaints without resolving the issue and without providing any relief with the false remarks “Issue resolved.”
This is the end destination of the complaint and it goes to the dustbin. No feedback is taken from the complainant and when the complainant gives some negative feedbacks regarding the issue on the feedback column it goes unnoticed.
PM Imran Khan, Chief Minister KP Mehmood Khan, chief secretary, commissioner Malakand and other authorities are requested to take notice of the issue to make Citizen Portal more effective and result oriented.
It is suggested that complaints should not be closed upon the remarks of the concerned department or officer rather feedback from the complainants should be taken seriously before closing the complaints.
Relevant department should give some substantial proof of resolving the issue and the proof must be uploaded in the portal which verifies that the issue is resolved. In case of negative feedback from the complainants’ inquiry should be initiated against the department or the officer for giving false impression about resolution of the issue.
If the present situation continued and no corrective measure is taken, the citizens will lose their trust in the portal and their issues will also go unresolved. Ultimately, the government initiative to resolve people issues will also produce no fruitful result and despondency among citizen will increase.
Nasir Mehmood
Chitral.