Public Grievance Redressal Taxonomy

Entities and Categories

This page outlines the key entities and major categories linked to the Public Grievance & Redressal (PGR) system. The categorizations primarily establish hierarchical relationships that can be established and as a whole yield taxonomies around PGR.

Grievance Management

1. Complainant

2. Grievance ID

3. Grievance Nature

4. Location

5. Access Channel

6. Accountable Organization

7. Accountable Department

8. Responsible Organization

9. Status

10. Prioritization

11. Grievance Handling Steps

12. Evidence

13. Quality

Key Terms & Definitions

Grievance: A complaint or service request raised by a citizen. Typically, involves concerns raised about the poor quality of service or when the promised services are not delivered as expected. Example: Garbage not collected.

Complainant: An individual, group or organization registering the grievance.

Grievance ID: A unique sequence of characters that identifies the registered grievance and is shared with the complainant. The ID is language independent.

Nature of Grievance: Category or type of grievance that determines if it is an individual grievance or a public grievance.

Access Channel: The different channels available to citizens to formally initiate/raise the grievance/service requests for the ULB to initiate action.

1. Physical: This channel type offers citizens physical access to ULB authorities or means to raise service requests. These may include local counters [managed by ULB bodies or third parties] or representatives visiting the citizen locations.

2. Counters: A physical space or window where citizens can transact business such as make a payment or raise service requests. The counters can be run by the department, government or a third party.

3. Mail: Physical items (such as documents, packages) that are sent/ received through the postal or courier delivery system.

4. Door to Door: This channel includes local governing body representatives or assigned third party agents who visit individual houses to collect payments, information. documents, etc.

5. Digital: This refers to the electronic medium (kiosks), that operates on self-help mode, made available to citizens to raise service requests, register grievances, or provide feedback etc.

6. Portals: Digital access points that enable citizens to avail various public services hosted by government bodies or third parties.

7. Mobile: This channel type provides citizens or organizations access to public services on their mobile phones.

8. Social Media: Use of online communication channels including Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram etc to share information and develop social or professional contacts.

9. Others: Access channels that are not purely digital or physical but facilitate citizens to raise service requests or share concerns through assisted means or public means.

10. Intermediaries: Go between agents or mediators who enable interaction between different parties. In this grievance context, it allows interaction between citizens or organisations and the government.

11. Print Media: Published media that are circulated among citizens or within communities - like newspapers, magazines, newsletters etc.

Location: A location is the place where something happens or is situated. This can be a geographical specification or the more commonly used postal address.

1. GeoCoordinates: Representation of the entity or location on the base map to uniquely identify it. For different terms - the requirement of geo specifications can be a mere point, line or a polygon.

2. Address: Set of location-related details in commonly accepted formats to identify an entity uniquely in a city or village. Conventionally used by postal or courier services to deliver mails or parcels to that location.

Accountable Organisation: The government body responsible for ensuring that the grievance is resolved.

Accountable Department: The department within the accountable organisation that handles grievances of a specific kind.

Grievance Category: The basic level of grouping of grievances handled by the accountable organisation.

Grievance Name: A commonly used name for a specific grievance that allows easy understanding.

Prioritization: The level assigned to grievances to help identify the order of urgency and the attention required. As such, items of high priority will need urgent attention as compared to items of medium or low priority.

Responsible Organisation: The organisation that has the primary ownership to act upon the grievance and is answerable to the accountable organisation.

Status: Refers to the current state of action on the complaint.

1. Registered: The grievance details are recorded and a unique grievance number is allocated.

2. Pending Assignment: The state where a responsible resolving employee is not yet identified.

3. WIP: An assigned complaint that has been taken up for action but yet to be resolved.

4. Resolved: When the complaint is acted upon and its status informed to stakeholders.

5. Rejected: Complaint is identified as invalid for any appropriate reason and cannot be worked upon.

6. Closed: A resolved complaint that may have captured complainant feedback or has met predefined conditions.

7. Reopened: A previously registered complaint that has not met the satisfaction of the complainant and has been opened again. Only for Resolved or Rejected or Closed complaints can be reopened.

8. Force Closed: Complaints in this state cannot be reopened.

Grievance Handling Steps: Broad steps or actions required to handle the grievances. Some steps may be optional depending on the context.

Evidence: (from a grievance perspective) Evidence constitutes any document, media or geo-tracking to assist in complaint location, complaint visualisation and complaint resolution process.

Quality: A set of tangible or intangible parameters that determine if a product or service conforms to specified standards or expectations. Quality thresholds change based on customer expectations and improvements sought.

1. Quality Parameter: The variable that can be measured, monitored and controlled through specific actions or interventions.

2. Commitment: Refers to the standards or thresholds to which the quality parameters conform to meet expectations. These could be SLAs, defined by the ULB or States.

3. Actual Value: Relates to the performance achieved on specified quality parameters in context to transactions or delivery of service.

Stakeholders: A defined set of people, individuals, or groups responsible for managing and delivering defined services.

1. Administrators: Senior officials who review the performance of their teams. For instance, Function Head, City Commissioner, Principal Secretary etc.

2. Citizens: Person who is a Resident or Visitor to the City

3. Businesses: Business Operating or wanting to operate in the City

4. ULB Officials: Employees / Contractors who are responsible for carrying out day to day tasks in the ULB in providing services or administrative work.

5. Service Providers: Those who actually perform the last mile execution of work under a specific contract or understanding with the ULB.

Evidence: Proof made available to authenticate an assertion or a claim. Depending on the type of claim or assertion - different kinds of evidence is applicable.

1. Document: Written on printed paper or electronic files that are allowed as evidence by the ULB. Often, the documented evidence mandates a hand signature or digital signature of specific persons in authority to lend authenticity and be admissible as evidence.

2. Video: An audio-visual media that provides a first-hand report or glimpse into the issue or situation in context.

3. Audio: Any audio recording that supports the claims or throws light on the situation in context.

4. Image: A visual depiction of an object through various means such as drawing, painting, photography, mirror reflections, the lens produced, computer-processed representation of objects (using thermal, infrared, ultraviolet, electromagnetic, sound waves) etc.

5. Electronic Logs: Digitally produced records of events, which are time-stamped. Sources of these logs can be from digital equipment such as telephones, networks, computers, sensors etc. These are normally used to help specific objectives such as gathering information for the diagnosis, evidence of event sequence etc.

6. Biometric: Personal data obtained from measurements or the use of electronic gadgets to gather physical or physiological data that confirms the identity of living things.

7. Purpose: The reason for which something is done. In this context - the reason for which the evidence is collected to support the claim or assertion made.

8. Identity: Condition or characteristics that define the person or the thing.

Grievance Category List

Grievance Category	Grievance Name
Solid Waste	List: Broken Bin, Absent Garbage Collector, Overflowing Garbage Bins, Garbage is strewn. Garbage Burning, Smelly Landfills, Fallen Trees, Debris, Hazardous Chemicals, Hazardous Medical Supplies
Water	List: No Water Supply, Pipe Broken, Leakage, Water Contamination, Stagnation, Borewell repair
Street Lighting	List: Not Working, Electric Shock from Street Lights, Streetlight Wires - Cut/ Overhanging
Sewerage	List: Sewerage pipe Leakage, Sewerage Pipe broke, Stagnant water, Open Manholes, Broken Manhole covers
Property Tax	List: Property Calculation, Did not get a receipt, Money Debited but Still showing outstanding, Errors in Demand Notice, Delays in Property Tax services
Public Facilities	List: Play Ground, Marriage Hall, Community Hall, Parks, Playground, Stadiums, Burial Ground
Stray Animals	List: Dog, Menace, Death of Stray Animals, Stray Cattle, Stray Pigs
Unauthorised Deeds	List: Illegal Slaughtering, Unauthorised Shops, Depositing FSM into Waterbody,/ Open groud, Unauthorised Tree cutting, Drinking in the Open, Food adulterations, Road Cutting, Dumping construction Materials on Road. Encroachment of Public Property, Misuse of community Hall, Wrong Parking, Unauthorised Advertisement boards, Violation of Building Byelaws, Unauthorised construction
Noise Pollution	List: Loud Speakers, Open Parties
Sanitation	List: Public Toilets, Community Toilets, School Toilets, Open Defecation, FSM operator, Unhygenice Slaughterhouse
Administrative	List: Election, Voter List, Schools, Employees, eKYC
Infrastructure	List: Roads, Medians, Footpaths, Traffic Island, Poor quality of work
Benefits Administration	List: Benefit Denied, Sum Not received