The Hindu News Update Service
News Update Service
Friday, July 24, 2009 : 1730 Hrs
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Pensioners get a helping hand from Rashtrapati Bhavan
New Delhi (PTI): If you have not received your pension despite reminders or
have been subjected to injustice and want a way out, now you can log on to
Rashtrapati
Bhavan's helpline portal and file your petition directly to the President.
The new portal,
http://helpline.rb.nic.in>
, which was launched on Friday by President Pratibha Patil promises to process
your petition and direct it to the Ministry or the department concerned directly
within seven working days.
Not only that, you will also get a Unique Registration Number (URN) with which
your can track the progress of your petition.
"This portal is the beginning of a new chapter in the Rashtrapati Bhavan. We
receive at an average 400 petitions per day from people. We have set up this
portal so that the people have a mechanism by which they know what is happening
to their petition," Christy Fernandez, Secretary to the President said.
Mr. Fernandez said it has been Ms. Patil's endeavour to modernise documentation
in the Bhavan and that the President's Secretariat would also try to convert
even the petitions received in paper format to digital.
"Citizens send petitions to the President only when all other options are
closed for them. Once we receive the petition, we will assign appropriate
grievance
category and forward it to the right Ministry or Department. The machine will
automatically generate a reminder every 15 days asking the relevant authorities
to update the steps taken on the petition," Mr. Fernandez said.
He said the system has being integrated with the centralised Public Grievance
Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) which will monitor the progress of
the petition.
Mr. Fernandez said though at present, the Website is in English, they would
also try and introduce the same in other languages too.
"We receive all kinds of petition, some genuine and other frivolous. Through
this system, the citizens would have a more detailed contact with us," he said.
Mr. Fernandez said at present 70 per cent of petitions were in paper format and
only 30 per cent through Internet.
"In future, once people get to know about this facility, the number of
e-petitions would increase," he said adding that the main challenge before the
scheme
was that not all state governments are attached to the CPGRAMS.
"Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Gujarat are doing good when it comes to
CPGRAMS but there are many states which are not connected to it. This is a
major challenge for the scheme," he added.
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