information of the Public Grievance/Complaint Officer and provides an online form that could be filled out to submit complaints or grievances directly.<sup>41</sup> Similarly, India‘s Employees Provident Fund Organization has recently set up a new Grievance Management Portal through its website.<sup>42</sup> The portal allows subscribers to register a grievance, send a reminder or clarification, view status or change password. The Grievance Registration Form is detailed, requiring (potentially compromising) personal information, information about the officer to which the grievance pertains, and allows a description of the grievance up to 5000 characters.<sup>43</sup> The municipality of Rajkot, in Gujarat, also has an SMS-based grievance redressal system for civic problems.<sup>44</sup> Pakistan‘s Benazir Income Support Programme similarly has an online grievance redressal system.<sup>45</sup> The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water and Sewage Board, in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, simplified and standardized the complaints process starting in the mid 1990s. This occurred in the context of a variety of service innovations that included a citizen‘s charter, a single window cell for services, management reforms, higher levels of publicity, and a focus on customer care. This package of reforms led to improvements in customer perceptions, and a reduction in wait times. Improved perceptions were accompanied by an _increase_ in the number of registered complaints, as well as an improvement in the efficiency of complaints redress.<sup>46</sup> In April, 2003, in Mumbai, the Praja Foundation and the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai jointly initiated the Online Complaint Management System, which streamlines complaints on urban public services into an online database for tracking performance.<sup>47</sup> This initiative lasted until 2007, when the municipality launched its own system, which includes ten phone lines with 24 hour coverage, an email address, a website portal, a fax number, courier paper complaints, and verbal complaint registries.<sup>48</sup> A final example involves Lok Satta, a civil society group, that worked with municipal authorities in Andhra Pradesh to establish citizens charters, complaints procedures, and an agreed upon fine

> 41 <u>http://esicvadodara.org/index_com.html</u>

> 42 <u>http://www.epfindia.gov.in/Index.htm</u>

> 43 <u>http://epfigms.gov.in/grievanceRegnFrm.aspx?csession=u1jrSg1SYwz&#</u>

> 44 For a description, see Yamini Aiyar, Bala Posani, Abhijit Patnaik and Manakini Devasher, Institutionalizing Social Accountability: Considerations for Policy, The Accountability Initiative, 2009: - <u>http://www.accountabilityindia.in/sites/default/files/working paper/36_1255255017.pdf</u>

> 45 <u>http://58.65.177.220/grievance/Grievance/login.aspx</u>

> 46 Jonathan Caseley, Blocked drains and open minds: multiple accountability relationships and improved service delivery performance in an Indian city. IDS Working Paper 211. December 2003: <u>http://www2.ids.ac.uk/gdr/cfs/pdfs/wp211.pdf</u>

> 47 http://www.praja.org/our-project-online-complaint-management-system.php

> 48 A description can be found here:

> <u>http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/APCITY/UNPAN012838.pdf</u> And the complaints portal itself is here: <u>http://www.mcgm.gov.in/irj/portal/anonymous?NavigationTarget=navurl://1541a2917b15d1b4a1a0713c12eb56ff#</u>

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