On Saturday, the government of Punjab issued an order mandating the appointment of Grievance Redressal Commissioners (GRCs) across all administrative departments.
The provincial caretaker cabinet made the decision at its 30th meeting. The action was taken to ensure that the problems were addressed and to stop petty disagreements from going to court.
The newly appointed GRCs will be essential in helping people who have been wronged by government officials or agencies get their problems solved. The government is serious about finding quick and effective answers, as seen by the directive’s rigorous time restriction of fifteen days for doing so.
A source informed The Express Tribune that the Punjab administration wants to increase openness by improving the effectiveness of the grievance redressal procedure. Even more, the government has ordered all administrative agencies to inform their respective officers.
A consensus was reached during the conference that all GRCs across government agencies should be at least BS-20 level. All applications and grievance petitions would be issued computer-generated receipts, as proposed by the cabinet as part of the GRCs’ Terms of Reference (TORs). The appropriate individual or authority will also be responsible for seeing that the issues are remedied within the stipulated fifteen business days.
GRCs’ Importance
One of GRCs’ responsibilities is eliminating instances of law being abused. Commissioners will be appointed to encourage government workers and others to raise legitimate complaints with the appropriate agencies. Their job description is for them to investigate allegations and complaints, determine the appropriate authorities to address them, and provide an assessment of the underlying causes and relevant legal frameworks.
Amendment requests
This directive was issued because of an increase in constitutional petitions being submitted to the High Court. In order to address difficulties like service regularization, promotions, and discrimination by their competent authority, government employees have turned to submitting constitutional petitions.
There has also been an uptick in the number of constitutional petitions filed by contractors looking to recoup disputed amounts of money. Payment was often ordered by the courts without regard to the validity of the claims being paid on.
During his briefing to the cabinet, Advocate General of Punjab Khalid Ishaq emphasized the importance of this system. He gave examples of people filing constitutional petitions asserting their right to occupy a space on the basis of what they said were official policies, circulars, or notices. These individuals filed petitions with the High Court, arguing that their requests for redress of grievances had been arbitrarily denied.
