E Governance- Will ESM Grieviences Get the C-in-C attention?

Now, your complaint will reach President at the click of a mouse by Smriti Kak Ramachandran: : The Hindu
Rashtrapati Bhavan gets over 400 mails every day
— Photo: PTI GOVERNANCE: President Pratibha Patil inaugurates the helpline portal at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Friday.

NEW DELHI: With the click of a few buttons, complaints, petitions and prayers will now swiftly reach the President’s Office, find their way to the departments concerned, get tracked as they are processed and the information stored for later use.

With the launch of a new website http://helpline.rb.nic.in on Friday, reaching out to the President has become easier. Launched by President Pratibha Patil at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the website has been designed to simplify the process of grievance redress.

“The Rashtrapati Bhavan mail box receives over 400 mails every day. The portal is expected to reduce the time taken to dispatch the mail to the Central and State government departments concerned, following up on the action taken and finally maintaining the record,” said Secretary to the President Cristy Fernandes.

“We hope to process the applications within seven days of receiving them. And everybody who sends us a mail will be provided a unique registration number (URN), which will help them keep track of their application,” he said.

The portal, Mr. Fernandes said, was the President’s idea. “On assuming office, the President expressed the wish to modernise everything possible, from infrastructure to the style of working.”

The portal offers citizens a platform to voice their grievances. Of the total applications that the President’s Office receives, 70 per cent are through snail mail and the rest electronically.

“People who are left with no options write to the President. There are some limitations that the office faces as far as keeping track of these applications, updating their status and preserving these applications is concerned. But with the launch of this portal, we hope to address these issues,” said Mr. Fernandes.

The new system is being integrated with the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System which will monitor the progress of the petition.

The portal, currently available in English, will gradually be available in Indian languages as well. It will allow lodging of lengthy e-petitions and enable supplementary attachment of scanned documents.
Now, your complaint will reach President at the click of a mouse
President Helpline: click me