No Public Grievance Forums Under TRS: Congress

Former Minister and senior Congress leader Mohammad Ali Shabbir today accused the TRS government of "dismantling the entire mechanism of public grievances and redressal" in Telangana.

"In the absence of a permanent Peshi, all ministers and departments are functioning without an address. People have no clue as to where they can lodge a complaint or express grievances. This prevents them from seeking any form of redressal and is entirely against the spirit of democracy and the Constitution," Shabbir Ali said in a media statement.

He alleged that some ministers were trying to "replace" the grievance redressal mechanisms with social media, and claimed, "Some ministers including IT Minister K T Rama Rao are giving an impression that they are resolving all the problems being faced by the people of the state through social media platforms like Twitter. This impression is mostly fake. It is manufactured. Some people who are familiar with Twitter are sharing their problems on the micro-blogging site. Of them, only a select few get the attention of the minister. But, he is creating a fake impression as if he is resolving all the problems addressed to him through Twitter. In reality, a majority of users sharing their problems are either blocked by his office or they are simply ignored. This is highly inhumane and insulting for the common people."

The Congress leader said that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had "remained inaccessible" to the common people for the last seven years of his reign.

"The TRS ministers are simply emulating CM KCR in evading the common people. That is perhaps why none of the numbers of the state's complaint cells, including those of specialised Covid-19 units, are fully functional. Of more than 50 helplines, only seven are functioning - that too partially. KCR is turning Telangana into a dictatorship where common people have no say in any matter. He is actively dismantling the very mechanism which empowered the common man; he is taking away their power to complain about things that concern them. Consequently, many people are now directly approaching the state's apex court by filing PILs," he fumed.

Referring to the caustic remarks made by the Telangana High Court against the KCR regime's "mishandling" of the Covid-19 situation, Shabbir Ali said that the situation would have been even worse had the court had not intervened at the right time.

"It was at the directions of the High Court that the government increased the number of tests and took measures to control the spread of the pandemic. Despite public outcry over private hospitals charging exorbitant amounts for Covid treatment, the KCR regime took no action against the looters. Again, it was only after the intervention of the HC that the health department took steps to control the private healthcare sector. However, it has still not recovered the extra money charged by the private hospitals," the former minister stated.

He demanded that the government take immediate measures to restore the grievance redressal mechanism in the state to enable people to lodge complaints about their specific problems, saying, "Social media platforms can be used as a medium by NGOs and other platforms. But the government cannot replace the public grievance forums with Twitter or other similar platforms. Not every citizen of Telangana is on Twitter and not every user has the skills to use such sites to express their grievances. Therefore, the government should either restore the old system or devise a new mechanism wherein people can lodge their complaints without any inconvenience."