To address grievances of people accessing public services offered by the ministries, an online system called eKaaSel was launched in Thimphu yesterday.

Lyonchhen Tshering Tobgay said that the online system is a platform for people to express their dissatisfaction, problems, and provide feedback related to public services offered in the country.

He said Government to Citizen (G2C) services is one of the most important services but at times, people were unable to avail these services. “When people had difficulty in availing of services or needed immediate service, or citizens were not satisfied with the services, there was no platform to lodge their grievances and problems.”

Officiating Chief of Public Grievance Services and Redressal Division (PGSRD), Lungten Zangmo said people contacted the division through facebook, e-mail, and would also visit the offices concerned when they had grievances and feedback to be made.

She said that the system went live from December 11 this year but people were not aware of the system. Service delivery is incomplete without the redressal system and several reformative actions were taken to make the online system simple, effective, and user-friendly, she said.

Currently, there were about 135 public services offered online, 120 Internet services and 15 mobile services.

An official from PSGRD said eKaaSel would provide a platform for transparency in the system, and that the service was open as it could be accessed from anywhere provided the user has access to Internet. “The system has features that would enable grievances or feedbacks to forward through email notification to the offices, and includes reporting feature in the system.”

eKaaSel can be accessed from the citizen portal at www.citizenservices.gov.bt and to avail the service, a citizen is required to submit verification details. The citizen would have to provide a mobile number so as to be informed on the successful submission of the grievance.

A citizen can also track the status of the submission and a user guide both in English and Dzongkha was developed to assist users.

Once a citizen lodges a grievance, it would be received and assessed by the PGSRD office after which it would be either notified to the citizen or to the head of the agency concerned. The grievance would then be further forwarded to the head of the department.

Lyonchhen Tshering Tobgay said all complaints would reach the Prime Minister’s office and that a time period would be set within which the complaint related to a ministry would be resolved.

The status of the grievance would be updated through SMS notification to the citizen if the grievance were redressed, he said.

Press release from the division stated that the launch also aims to encourage citizens to participate in public service delivery initiatives towards making public services citizen-centric, and to strengthen accountability in public agencies.

It also stated that the division would create periodic reports on the system usage and applicability.

Rinchen Zangmo