Gandhinagar (Gujarat) [India], January 20 : The State SWAGAT online public grievance redressal programme, organised every month and chaired by Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, will be held on Thursday in Gandhinagar.
Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the SWAGAT online public grievance redressal programme has been conducted since 2003, under which the State SWAGAT is organised on the fourth Thursday of every month.
Accordingly, citizens can submit their representations for this SWAGAT programme in person at the Chief Minister's Public Relations Unit, Swarnim Sankul-2, Gandhinagar, on Thursday, January 22, between 8:00 am and 11:00 am, a release said.
The Chief Minister will personally attend the State SWAGAT on Thursday afternoon and hear the citizens' representations directly, the official press release stated.
To bridge the gap between citizens and the government by harnessing technology's potential, the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi launched the SWAGAT (State Wide Attention on Grievances by Application of Technology) programme on April 24, 2003.
The objective of this programme was simple yet powerful: to enable citizens to present their grievances directly before the highest levels of the government without fear, delay, or procedural obstacles. The scope of the SWAGAT online programme has expanded to districts, talukas, and villages.
This initiative, launched by the Prime Minister, is today being managed by Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel.
For the past 22 years, the SWAGAT platform has been strengthening Gujarat's citizens' trust in the state government. This is evident from the fact that 99.10 per cent of applications received on this platform over the last 22 years have been resolved positively, according to the official press release.
The SWAGAT programme, launched by the Prime Minister, was designed as an active, people-centric platform. Now, under the leadership of the Chief Minister, the SWAGAT platform has evolved in step with the times and technology.
Under the guidance of the Chief Minister, the SWAGAT 2.0 Auto Escalation Matrix system was implemented across all districts and all departments of the state on December 25, 2024, along with the launch of the SWAGAT online mobile application.
Notably, this system was implemented as a pilot project on December 25, 2023, on the occasion of 'Good Governance Day' for the Revenue and Panchayat Department and the Patan and Kheda districts.
After the launch of the pilot project, 90 per cent of the 21,540 applications were qualitatively resolved within the stipulated time frame. As the pilot project proved successful, SWAGAT 2.0 was launched across all districts on the next Good Governance Day, that is, December 25, 2024.
The modern SWAGAT system is built on an automatic escalation framework that ensures grievances do not remain pending at any level. In SWAGAT 2.0, time limits are defined to ensure qualitative resolution of citizens' issues within a specified period.
The applicant's representation is sent online to the officer directly responsible for grievance redressal. The concerned officer is required to take necessary action within the stipulated time frame. Applicants are also kept informed about the status of their grievances through SMS at every stage, from registration to final resolution.
If the concerned officer fails to resolve the grievance within the stipulated time frame, the complaint is automatically escalated to the login of the next higher-level officer upon expiry of the time limit.
The higher authority is then required to resolve the grievance, and the superior officer must do so. Only after verification that the representation has been satisfactorily and appropriately resolved is it considered finally disposed of.
Furthermore, if the applicant is not satisfied with the action taken on their grievance, they can provide feedback and escalate their complaint to the next higher-level officer. It is noteworthy that these applications are also closely monitored by the Chief Minister's Office.
To ensure the timely disposal of applications received on the portal, various monitoring dashboards have been prepared. In addition, a performance dashboard has been developed to assess officials' performance.
Based on these dashboards, information is obtained on the types of representations received in greater numbers across different districts, as well as the policy-level changes required based on representations received from various districts of the state.
According to the official press release, many policy-level decisions have been taken through the SWAGAT programme, mainly including important decisions related to farmers, land acquisition, students, encroachment on gauchar land (pasture land), re-survey matters, and policing.