Prajavani Andhra Pradesh

Prajavani is a web-based online portal that receives, replies and monitors public grievances that are reported at District Collectorates. The term 'Prajavani' means Voice of People. The portal is an improved system of Lokvani, a grievance redressal method used in Uttar Pradesh that has been replicated after local customization in Andhra Pradesh. It enables citizens to file grievances at the kiosk in his/her village or Mandal. The citizen would also receive responses from the kiosk in a stipulated time. From kiosk at the Collectorate, all grievances are marked to the respective Officer/Department with the disposal of the due date. Once obtaining the response from Collectorate, it is marked back to the kiosk where it is received from; it is received by the applicant without requiring any rounds to the offices. The partnering agencies of the portal include the Government of Andhra Pradesh and National Informatics Centre (NIC). Also read about e-Pragati Portal

Objectives

The primary objectives of Prajavani Andhra Pradesh are mentioned below.

To make the grievance redressal process easy by reporting them online.
To remove the need for the physical presence of an individual for submitting petitions.
Achieve SMART District by conforming with the Governance through e-Governance.
Ensure quick and quality response.
Promote accountability and time-bound service delivery in Administration.

Need for the Portal

All citizens have to approach the office and submit the grievance application to the officer. There has always been less scope for accountability, follow up and resolution of the grievance. However, the grievance redressal was often ignored or gained very less priority. As an initiative to eliminate all the above-mentioned difficulties, this portal has been developed.

Methodology

The project has been started as a pilot at Mominpet Mandal of Ranga Reddy District, and gradually scaled-up to other districts.

Application Procedure

Step 1: The citizen has to enter his application at the kiosk at the village or Mandal level that has been duly getting a receipt. Step 2: The application then would be forwarded to call centres in District Collectorate that further transfers to the concerned officer by specifying the due date of disposal. Step 3: The officer prepares and feeds the response online within the time limit that can be seen at Kiosks. These Kiosks are run through Public-Private Partnerships. Step 4: Kiosks are operational at District, Division, Madal and even at the village level. Petitioner can know the status of his/her petition from Kiosks that are located in their regions. The response quality is monitored as it goes through District officials with Collector's office as the nodal agency.

Target Group

Citizens who need to report their grievances.
Unemployed youth willing to start kiosks or CSCs, thereby making a living.

Benefits

The benefits of the e-Governance portal are as follows:

Cost Reduction

The travel cost and time involved to make rounds to the office for its follow up has been reduced.
Effective monitoring by the District Collector and other District Officers (HODs) about the progress of their concerned departments of disposal rates.

Corruption Reduction

Citizens have been provided with an effective system to interact with the Government.
Since there is no human interface, no corruption is involved in the application process.
Recording and retrieval take place online, facilitating the tracking of the status and timely disposal of grievances.
Bring transparency in all Government dealings that are related to the citizens.

Service Improvement

The quality of response monitored by the applicant.
Speedy and effective disposal is built through officer wise monitoring and appraisal system.
Inherently automated process.
The citizens can directly avail several government services at the Division, Mandal and village level.
It provides the Collector with an effective tool to monitor the performance of various departments.
A guest login has been created for general public whereby any citizen can visit the Prajavani website and lodge petition and know the status of their grievances.
The portal is active with the receival rate of 13000-14000 grievance per month from 20 districts, where it has been implemented.

Physical Infrastructure

A kiosk with an internet facility or a CSC with all the required infrastructure like a computer, printer, scanner etc. has been established.

Human Resources

Kiosk Operators: The applicant has to enter the petition into the Prajavani website and generate the receipt, hand it over to the petitioners and assist then to know its status. Prajavani Operators: The Petition Monitoring Section at Collectorate plays a major role in the timely disposal of complaints. They check daily unmarked petitions and send it to the concerned department/officer and feeds the disposal after getting replies from the concerned departments. Officers: The login ID and password are given to MROs, MDOs and others. These officers enter the action taken reports on complaints directly in Prajavani site using the officer's login.

Performance Indicators

Number of complaints filed online
Timely rate of resolution of grievances/petitions
Reduction in visits to Government offices
Perceived ease of the applicant

Contact Details

Address: State Informatics Office, National Informatics Cente, A-Block, BRKR Bhavan, Tank Bund Road, Hyderabad - 500063. Phone: 040-23223139, 040-23224563 e-Mail: sio@ap.nic.in