SWAGAT- Have a problem? Tell the CM face-to-face

In 2003, the state government in Gujarat State, India, introduced an ICT-based communication application to help improve the way that public grievances were dealt with. It is called the State-Wide Attention on Public Grievance by Application of Technology which enables direct communication between the citizens and the chief minister.

How it works:
1. The program is organized on every 4th Thursday of the month. The complainer visits CM’s ‘Jansampark’ office between 10 am to 12 pm, to register their complaints. Complaints are divided in 3 categories. Policy matters, Long Pending and First Timer. The focus is on long pending issues.
2. Complaints are entered ‘ON Line’, using package developed by NIC. Complaints are sent to the concerned department at the same time, with a copy to the all related department.
3. Departments have to be ready with the replies, before 3 PM, when the CM starts Video Conference with the Districts concerned. Applicants are called one by one and the CM discusses the issues with them in detail. The information, which is sent by the concerned department is also reviewed by hon. CM. Concerned Collector / DDO / SP also remain present in the meeting through VC and participate in the discussion.

Impact:
1. The state invested large sums in its ICT infrastructure. Although it was one of the first applications to make use of that infrastructure, these costs are not attributed to SWAGAT. Instead, the only attributed costs are the c.US$20,000 plus in-house development costs for the incremental hardware and application software created to run SWAGAT day.
2. The team handles an average of 70 grievances per month.

Examples:
Case 1: An unemployed man from the scheduled castes (groups recognised as subject to discrimination and thus given particular government benefits) applied in 2001 to a government scheme that provides a subsidy plus loan to set up a shop. A decision on eligibility should have been made by the Scheduled Caste Welfare Officer in the local district. However, no decision was ever made, despite the lodging of a public grievance by the applicant. On SWAGAT day, the case was reviewed by the Chief Minister, and the Officer approved the loan and subsidy that day.
Case 2: A farmer applied to have his land measured by a government Survey Officer, in order to register its size. The measurement was taken, but was taken wrongly. The farmer asked the Officer many times to re-measure, but this was not done, even after the farmer had got a notice sent via a lawyer. On SWAGAT day, the Survey Officer's boss was involved and - through the Chief Minister's guidance - the Survey Officer was ordered to re-measure the land; which he did within 20 days.