mechanism has been developed to track the progress achieved in online processing and disposal
      of different types of clearances in various central ministries/departments, etc. The portal tracks
      all digitalized proposals starting from the online submission till clearance by pulling the
      information from various online central services/clearance portals of ministries/departments, etc.
      Public Grievances
           The Directorate of Public Grievances (DPG) was set up in the Cabinet Secretariat in 1988 to
      entertain grievances from the public after they fail to get satisfactory redress from the
      ministry/department concerned within a reasonable time. It is thus, an office of the last resort for
      redress of grievances relating to sectors in its purview. Grievance can be lodged with DPG
      through post, email or by lodging the complaint online on the portal. The cases received offline
      are entered in the system and, thereafter, all cases are handled using PGRAMS application.
           Each grievance is first scrutinized to see if it relates to a sector in DPG’s purview. Those
      concerning the sectors outside the purview of DPG are forwarded to the Department of
      Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances for appropriate disposal, under intimation to the
      complainants. The remaining grievances are then assessed to ascertain whether the issue
      involved is grave and whether the concerned ministry/department has been given an opportunity
      to redress the grievance. The grievances of grave nature which are either long pending or where
      the redress is not forthcoming from concerned service organisation/ministry are taken up for
      detailed examination. These cases are followed up to a logical and reasonable conclusion. Other
      cases are transferred to the concerned ministry for appropriate action.
           When DPG seeks comments, the department or organization is expected to examine the
      matter and give a reply within thirty days. After receipt of comments, DPG may, if considered
      necessary, seek further information to ensure that the grievance is dealt with in a fair and
      objective manner by the department or organization and confirmation of satisfactory redress of
      the grievance is also sought from the complainant before closure.
           DPG has been progressively computerizing its operations since the early years. The Public
      Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (PGRAMS), an exclusive automation programme for
      DPG was adopted in 1999. The PGRAMS is integrated with Centralised Public Grievance
      Redress and Monitoring System, ‘CPGRAMS’, the operating system for Public Grievances
      Portal covering all the ministries/departments of Government of India. With a view to improving
      further the redress system, a number of measures like launch of Hindi version of PGRAMS to
      widen its coverage, incorporation of features like e-mail/SMS for better communication with the
      complainants, press advertisements to increase awareness about DPG in public, etc. were
      implemented during the year 2016-17.
      National Disaster Management Authority
           Emergence of an organization is always through an evolutionary process. National Disaster
      Management Authority (NDMA) has also gone through the same stages. The Government of
      India, in recognition of the importance of Disaster Management as a national priority, set up a
      high-powered committee in 1999 and a National Committee after the Gujarat earthquake, for
      making recommendations on the preparation of disaster management plans and suggesting
      effective mitigation mechanisms. The Tenth Five-Year Plan document also had, for the first
      time, a detailed chapter on Disaster Management. The Twelfth Finance Commission was also
      mandated to review the financial arrangements for disaster management.